CLAUDE'S BOOK 



111 




EDITED BY 
LWAY-B AMBER 






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CLAUDE'S BOOK 



CLAUDE'S BOOK 



EDITED BY 

L. KELWAY-BAMBER 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM 
SIR OLIVER LODGE 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
191? 



7 



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TO 

THE MANY FRIENDS 

AT WHOSE REQUEST IT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED 

"CLAUDE'S BOOK" 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A Letter from Sir Oliver Lodge ix 

Reply to Sir Oliver's Letter xiii 

Introduction xv 

A Few Tests xix 

I. Claude's Talks 1 

"His Death and New Life" . . 1 

"Death's Surprises" ..... 9 

" Certain ' Mundane ' Matters " . . . 16 

"The Christ" 25 

"Of Reincarnation" 28 

" Guides, Inspiration, and God " . . . 38 

"A Day's Work" 45 

" Various People, Children, and Affinities " 51 

" The Difficulties of Communication " . 58 
" The Spheres and the Source of All 

Power" 62 

" Physical Limitations " .... 73 

"Man's Connection with God" . 76 

"Man's Beginning" 81 

" The Madonna and a Little Earth- 
Mother " ....... 85 

" The Aura " 89 

" Astrals and Thought-Forms " . . .93 
" Religion and Science, Thought, and 

Thoughts" 100 

II. Claude's Letters ...... 105 

vii 



A LETTER FROM SIR OLIVER LODGE 

Dear Mrs. Kelway-Bamber, — 

I have read the type-script of your son's book, 
and though it may strike people as rather crude I 
am impressed by the honesty and simplicity and 
straightforwardness of its material. 

I know that what has been written is a genuine 
un-edited though necessarily abbreviated record of 
what has come through a thoroughly honest me- 
dium, with whom you have had the exceptional pri- 
vilege of weekly sittings for more than two years; 
and I have every reason to know, from certain evi- 
dential messages, that the communicating intelli- 
gence is really your son's. You do not here quote 
these evidences, partly for the sake of brevity but 
chiefly because so much has already been published 
of the domestic and trivial kind, and you desire, as 
Claude does, to call attention to what they have to 
say about the nature of posthumous existence. 

You are, of course, well aware that no sort of 
infallibility is attributable to such utterances, but 
they are undoubtedly instructive; and philosophers 
of high standing have urged that statements of this 

ix 



x CLAUDE'S BOOK 

kind ought to be made accessible. They represent 
at worst a psychological phenomenon ; while at best 
they convey the impressions of an eager new- 
comer to the other side, who with a gift of vivid 
statement is anxious to convey to you as much as 
he has so far learnt about the conditions which at 
his particular stage of development are encountered 
there. 

On all recondite problems there are probably as 
many opinions over there as there are here, and it 
is unlikely that in dealing with what corresponds 
to scientific or philosophic fact he has arrived at 
much of importance; but concerning elementary 
details of life and conduct his witness agrees in the 
main with that of others, and the wisest and best 
informed among critical students of the subject will 
be able to learn most from consistent statements of 
this kind. It has been responsibly urged that honest 
and undoctored records of actual subjective expe- 
rience will ultimately enable philosophers to system- 
atise posthumous existence in their general scheme 
of the universe, and undoubtedly yours is an in- 
teresting instalment of the necessary raw material; 
though at times it goes beyond actual experience 
and trespasses on the fanciful with too much of 
what is presumably hearsay and secondhand in- 



A LETTER FROM SIR OLIVER LODGE xi 

formation — about reincarnation, for instance — all 
which for my part I discount. But in spite of this 
I sympathise with your desire to publish the mes- 
sages received from your active and energetic son 
as a whole, without selection or suppression, and to 
submit them to the harsh criticism of a rather puz- 
zled world. 

Yours faithfully, 

OLIVER LODGE 



REPLY TO SIR OLIVER'S LETTER 

26th July 19 18 
My dear Sir Oliver, — 

Thank you for your letter. I am very grateful 
to you for the interest and trouble you have taken 
in the prefatory matter, and will print your criticism 
on Claude's Book in the forefront of the volume, if 
you have no objection. I make no claim for the 
book, except that it is his, for it is the " honest and 
undoctored " record of what he has told me. 

Claude professes to have no special privilege of 
any kind, and says hundreds of people who have 
" passed over " could tell their relatives all he has 
told me, but lack the opportunity. 
With kind regards, 

Yours sincerely, 
L. KELWAY-BAMBER 



Xlll 



INTRODUCTION 

There was no intention originally of publishing 
these "talks," and it must be understood that the 
terms used in this little book are the " nearest equi- 
valent " to the conditions, or states, or feelings 
Claude wishes to explain or describe to his mother, 
and cannot always be perfectly technically accurate, 
because for certain things in the spirit-world we 
have no exact expression, as they are beyond our 
normal experience. 

Many things have been omitted : all references, 
for instance, to his family, his friends, current 
events, and so forth. 

Up to the time he was killed, Claude's mother was 
entirely sceptical as to the possibility of communica- 
tion between the living and the so-called " dead," 
and it was only through her deep grief at his pre- 
mature loss that she decided to investigate, in the 
faint hope that there might at least be some definite 
comfort in it. She spent three months in reading 
and studying the subject, then joined the " London 
Spiritualist Alliance Ltd." (now at 6 Queen Square, 

xv 



xvi CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Southampton Row), and attended their lectures and 
meetings, which proved most instructive and useful, 
eventually going to several mediums for private 
sittings. She was very fortunate in getting many 
evidential tests, a few of which are recorded in the 
preliminary portion of this book. 

These communications, which were written down 
on each occasion, have all been received through 
" Feda " in a series of regular sittings during the 
past two years. She is the " spirit-control " of Mrs. 
Osborne Leonard, to whom Claude's mother is in- 
debted for many very happy hours. 

Claude was one of the merriest, happiest boys, 
full of irrepressible spirits and extraordinary vital- 
ity; he had a very keen sense of humor, and a well- 
balanced mind. 

He always expressed himself very well, and ex- 
plained things very clearly. He could go from 
grave to gay with extraordinary rapidity, and often 
introduced a " quip," or an amusing sentence, or a 
joke, in the middle of a solemn conversation, and 
this is still characteristic of him; these have been 
generally omitted, as people who did not know him 
might misunderstand and think he was not in earn- 
est, but they are very evidential as so typical of the 
boy. 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

It may be understood that when he says " I 
think," or " It may be," he is recording his own 
impressions and ideas ; when he states anything defi- 
nitely as a fact it is something he has been taught 
or told by experienced guides and teachers. 

Claude joined the Army immediately war began 
in August 1 9 14, without waiting for a commission, 
which he obtained in October. He subsequently 
transferred to the Flying Corps and was trained as 
a pilot. He was killed in mid-air, fighting two Ger- 
man aeroplanes, near Courtrai, Flanders, in Novem- 
ber, 1915, three months after he went to the Front; 
his machine came down in the enemy lines. A few 
of his letters are printed for purposes of compari- 
son with the " talks." 



A FEW TESTS 

On 29th February 19 16 I attended a public seance 
at the rooms of the " Alliance." Mrs. Brittain 
was the clairvoyante. There were a number of 
people present. I sat in the middle of the room; 
no one knew me there. I had never seen her before, 
as she had just come from the North. Going home 
by " Tube " I found myself standing next to Mrs. 
Brittain in the lift. Though I did not know her 
I spoke to her, making some remark about the meet- 
ing we had just left. She replied, and then said, 
" Excuse me, but are you a medium?" I said I was 
not, and asked what made her think it was possible. 
Her reply was, " Because you have a spirit boy with 
you; he is so clear and so strong it is difficult to 
realize you can't see him!" I asked for a descrip- 
tion, and she said, " He is tall, slight, and fair; blue 
eyes, smooth hair, well brushed off his forehead, 
which is well developed; he is very young and 
boyish-looking; clear, smooth skin; a very happy, 
merry disposition." This is correct, and was the 
first description I received of him, though I often 

xix 



xx CLAUDE'S BOOK 

felt he was with me. On Tuesday, 14th March, 
that is, a fortnight later, I went to Mrs. Osborne 
Leonard for my first private sitting. I had ar- 
ranged to visit her by calling and fixing a time, but 
gave her no name, nor address, nor particulars of 
any kind ; she is a trance medium, and it was evident 
that her little spirit-control " Feda " was in touch 
with the boy. Curiously enough my boy did not 
show himself in his uniform. " Feda " described 
him ; then said, " He has a grey suit on, and he tells 
me to tell you he is wearing it to prove to you he 
was with you yesterday when you were searching 
everywhere for that suit." This was a fact; I had 
looked all over the house for it the day before, in- 
tending to give it to a boy I knew. " He shows me 
a medal and says they have given him here what 
he did not get on earth." (He had been recom- 
mended for a decoration, but was killed a few days 
later.) "Feda" then said, "I don't know why 
he had a medal if he wasn't a soldier. He did not 
pass over in illness. I get a rushing feeling as if 
I were falling; my head is numb, and my throat is 
wrong." These were evidently the boy's death- 
conditions, and as the subject was very painful for 
us both I asked no questions about it. " Feda " 
then proceeded to tell me Claude had been with me 



A FEW TESTS xxi 

to a place " where there were mountains and a river 
which made a noise rushing over stones.' , He said 
he had been for a walk with me when I climbed 
a stile into a wood. This was correct; I had just 
returned from Scotland. He asked if I had received 
some photos of him and his friends " ragging " out- 
side his tent. I had not received them then, but 
they came later, and included one in which a friend 
was taken with his head hanging down and his feet 
in the air, supported by companions. 

On Monday, ioth April, I attended another public 
seance at the " Alliance " rooms. The medium on 
this occasion was a Mr. Von Bourg. He was an 
absolute stranger to me. I had never seen him 
before. The meeting was crowded. After giving 
a few other descriptions, he spoke to me and de- 
scribed some spirit-friends he said he could see with 
me ; and proceeded, " There is a young airman, very 
happy-looking, only been passed over a few months. 
He is tall and slight, fair smooth skin, fair hair, 
brushed well back, blue eyes, clear skin— do you 
know him? ,, I said, "Yes, he is my son." He 
then described a boy called " George," whom I 
knew, giving his name. He also talked of some one 
called " John," and said he was a very beautiful 
spirit, looked about twenty, and said he was a near 



xxii CLAUDE'S BOOK 

relative of mine. I could not place him, and thought 
it was a mistake, and determined to ask Claude 
about it at my next private sitting, which happened 
to be next day with Mrs. Osborne Leonard. He 
was full of interest and excitement, and exclaimed, 
" Why, he's your brother, Mum !" I was very much 
surprised and said, "Why, my brother died when 
he was four years old!" and Claude said (through 
"Feda"), "But people grow up here; they don't 
remain babies!" Even then I could not appreciate 
the icfea, and said, " But he would have been forty 
now, and the medium said he looks twenty !" " So 
he does," was the reply; " and he never will look old, 
for here one grows up but has no material body 
to age." This I think a wonderful test, for I was 
only five years old when that little brother died, and 
had not thought of him for years, and then only as 
a child. At a sitting with Mrs. Osborne Leonard 
on 30th May " Feda " began the sitting by saying, 
" Claude is here ; he is laughing very much ; he looks 
so funny, ' Feda ' did not know him at first. He 
has very dirty things on, all covered with grease, 
and oil, and black. ' Feda ' does not like Claude 
in those clothes ! He says you will know them." I 
did ; they were the " overalls " he wore at the work- 
shops where he was learning Mechanical Engineer- 



A FEW TESTS xxiii 

ing. He was noted there for the amount of dirt he 
managed to get off the machinery on to himself! 
it was quite a family joke. The other men always 
said they pitied the woman who washed his clothes. 

At a sitting on nth November Claude said, 
among other things about his spirit-body, " It's just 
the same as the other, down to the wart on my 
finger." This was good, as on his last leave we tried 
to persuade him to see the doctor about an unsightly 
wart that had grown on one hand. 

I could go on almost indefinitely with various 
tests, and will conclude with one of another kind. 
At a sitting in May in 1917 with " Feda," Claude 
brought the spirit of a friend who, he said, had 
only passed over a very few days before. A week 
later this man was reported " missing " in the offi- 
cial list in the papers ; no further news was received 
of him. All dates and particulars were noted at the 
time for future verification. 

L. KELWAY-BAMBER 



i.— CLAUDE'S BOOK 

HIS DEATH AND NEW LIFE 

I was rather depressed as I went out to my machine 
that last November morning, I don't know why. I 
certainly had no presentiment of evil; but, once 
started, my spirits rose as usual, and I felt quite 
cheery and singularly free from nervousness. 

Many men here have since told me this rather 
curious fact, that on the occasion of their last fight, 
whether in the air or in the trenches, nervousness 
left them. I don't know whether the spirit instinc- 
tively knows its fate and braces itself to meet it, or 
if one's spirit-friends are able to make their presence 
and comfort felt at that supreme crisis, but probably 
it was the only occasion on which I was absolutely 
free of all fear. 

When we were attacked by two enemy aeroplanes 
my feeling was one of acute irritation, for we were 
on our way back after finishing some work over the 
enemy lines. I felt harassed, too, as I climbed, and 
turned, and dived here and there to attack. My 
observer said something, and I remember putting the 
nose of the machine down to get below one of our 

i 



2 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

opponents, when I felt a terrible blow on my head, 
a sensation of dizziness and falling, and then noth- 
ing more. 

It may have been a fortnight or more later (we 
have no account of " time " here, so I cannot be 
sure) that I became conscious again. I felt dizzy 
and stupid but was not in pain, and on collecting 
my thoughts and looking round, found myself in 
bed in an unknown room. 

Before thought took definite form I felt I had been 
passing through space. My body seemed to have be- 
come light. I wondered if I was in hospital, and if any- 
one had written to tell you I was wounded. Nurses 
moved about the room; if I attempted to talk or ask 
questions a doctor came to my side and, putting his 
hand on my head, soothed me to silence again. 

Several more days must have passed. I rested, 
dozing and peaceful ; it never seemed to get dark. 

On one occasion when the kindly doctor came to 
my bedside I asked him where I was, and if my 
people knew of my whereabouts. He did not soothe 
me to sleep, as usual, but sat down beside me. 

" I want to have a talk with you and explain 
things," he said. " You are not on the earth now ; 
you are no longer on the Physical plane." 



HIS DEATH AND NEW LIFE 3 

I didn't understand, and asked, " Surely I am 
in a private hospital? " 

" No," he replied; "you have passed out of the 
physical body and are in the state you used to know 
as having died." 

I could not believe him. " Great Scot ! You 
don't mean I'm dead ! " 

" We will use that term simply as it's the only 
one you understand just now," he said. " You are 
alive and are starting the fuller and more beautiful 
life;" but the feeling I had was one of sudden loss 
and loneliness and almost desperation. 

" Is my mother here, or have my father or brother 
come? If they are not here I don't want to stay!" 

" You will have to stay," was the reply ; " and if 
you will only be patient you will find life interesting 
and beautiful." 

" It won't be interesting, it won't even be bear- 
able if they are not here," I exclaimed indignantly. 

" Can I go to my mother ? I must see her and 
know she can't see me before I can believe what you 
say is true. I feel as if it were all a dream." 

Then a gentleman came to speak to me who I was 
told was my grandfather, but as I had never seen 
him before it did not convince me, and I felt as if 
I was living altogether in a dream. 



4 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Others came who claimed to be relatives and 
friends, including several ladies who kissed me, but 
as I knew none of them I remained inconsolable, and 
my friend the doctor promised, as soon as it was 
suitable, I should be sent to see you, that the truth 
might be proved to me. 

A few days later I was told I was to be taken 
home to see you. 

I can't remember the exact details of that even- 
ing, as I was shaken with conflicting emotions which 
chased through me — joy, and fear, and hope, and 
grief, and impatience, and almost despair of the un- 
known future into which I had plunged without you. 

I passed with the two friends who guided me 
through the Astral plane to the earth. As we came 
nearer, the atmosphere became thicker and misty, 
and the houses and everything seemed indistinct, 
the view disappeared, and I found myself standing 
in your room at the foot of your bed. 

A terrible feeling of despair filled my heart, for 
I knew what I had been told was true : I was indeed 
" dead." 

You were sitting up in bed in an agony of grief, 
the tears streaming down your face, repeating my 
name over and over again, and calling me, and saw 
me not. 



HIS DEATH AND NEW LIFE 5 

I had expected a cry of joy, but it never came. 
I bent forward and called as loudly as I could, 
" Mummy, I'm here; can't you see or hear me? " 

You made no reply. I went to your side and put 
my arms round you, and though you were not con- 
scious of my presence I seemed to be able to soothe 
you, for you became calmer and lay down. 

I felt as if I were fainting, and had no will to 
resist when my guides took me away back to the 
hospital. 

I felt, however, that your love was mine still; 
I could feel its power, I understood it and realized 
it better than ever before. It was a spiritual caress, 
and I felt it through every fibre of my body, and was 
full of thankfulness. I knew, too, that in all my life 
your love had never failed me, and that, even now, 
you would find a way, if it were possible, to bridge 
the gulf between us — you would never let me " drop 
out/' 

When I realized this, I knew the worst was over, 
and the bitterness of death had passed. . . . 
Worn by my emotions, I slept and woke later in 
quite a different mood. 

I found a young man seated at my bedside who 
said, " Well, old chap, we've pulled through." He 
has since become a friend of mine; his name is 



6 CLAUDES BOOK 

"Joe " (you did not know him personally, but you 
know of him, and know whom I mean). 

A sense of adventure now filled my mind; I felt 
full of health and well-being, and was longing to 
explore this new country. 

I jumped out of bed and dressed, and, escorted by 
Joe, my grandfather, and quite a number of other 
relatives and friends, went to a home that was ready 
for me. 

This consisted of a bedroom and a jolly little 
sitting-room, a " den/' with a piano, a sofa, and 
an arm-chair in it, in a house where there was 
similar accommodation for other men. It stands in 
a delightful garden. 

I made up my mind to be happy and settle down 
in my new surroundings as soon as I could. I asked 
one of my guides if it was a " thought-world " we 
were in, though the ground felt quite substantial to 
my feet ; and he said, " It is more real and perm- 
anent than the one you have left." I bent down and 
poked my finger in the soil and found it left a hole, 
and the soil stuck under my nail. . . . 

We went for a walk through beautiful woods and 
fields; the turf was springy, the air soft and clear, 
and soft sunshine over everything. 

We then returned to the house and explored the 



HIS DEATH AND NEW LIFE 7 

grounds. There is a beautiful fountain with spark- 
ling water in it. I made a cup of my hand and 
drank a little, but did not need it, and asked my 
companion what would happen if I drank too much. 
" You will not drink too much, that would be fool- 
ish; and if you were foolish you would not be here, 
as each man earns his environment by his conduct. 
By the working of the natural law you gravitate 
to the place for which you are suited ; what is within 
you draws you automatically/' 

I bathed in a glorious lake the water of which 
was slightly scented. It ran off my body as I 
stepped out, almost as if it were running off marble 
or alabaster. . . . 

I became accustomed to my new life and found 
innumerable friends, both new and old; all were 
ready and anxious to help me in every way. 

I asked to be taken to see you again, Mummy, but 
was told it was inadvisable for a little while, as your 
mind was undergoing great changes, and you were 
learning many psychic truths. I was told that I 
was much blessed in my mother, for your grief had 
roused all the spiritual in you, and my passing 
would not divide but unite us more closely than ever 
before. And indeed it has proved so, for you know 
that, after the war, had I come through it, I should 



8 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

probably have taken an appointment abroad and not 
been able to come home for years; whereas as it is 
I come home and see you every day and you feel 
my presence, and know you have only to concentrate 
your thoughts on me, and your desire for my pres- 
ence, and the thought, " somehow and somewhere," 
will reach me and I will come. 



DEATH'S SURPRISES 

I did not think of death often, Mum, even when I 
faced it every day, for it all seemed so indefinite. 

I quite hoped if I did " go out," in consideration 
of the fact that I had tried to do my bit, I should 
find myself in Heaven; but the prospect, honestly, 
as usually presented, did not appeal to me. You 
know I didn't care very much for music, and the 
idea of sitting on a throne clad in a white robe play- 
ing a harp sounded terribly boring, so I trusted to 
luck and left it at that. 

I know now the whole mistake lies in looking 
upon death as the end of "activity" (with a re- 
newal at some indefinite date), whereas as a matter 
of fact it is an incident only, though a very im- 
portant one, in a continuous life. Your feelings, 
your memory, your love, your interests and ambi- 
tions remain; all you have left behind (and even 
that one cannot at first realize) is the physical body, 
which proves to be merely the covering of the 
spiritual to enable it to function in a material world. 

Man truly is a spirit and has a body, not vice 
versa. 

9 



io CLAUDE'S BOOK 

I have told you that I, in common with hundreds 
of other men here, go down to the battlefields to 
help to bring away the souls of those who are pass- 
ing out of their bodies. 

We are suited for the work, having ourselves en- 
dured the horrors of war. Spirits unused to it can- 
not bear the terrible sights and sounds. 

We bring them away so that they may return 
to consciousness far from their mutilated physical 
bodies, and oh, Mum, I feel quite tired sometimes 
of explaining to men that they are " dead ! " 

They wake up feeling so much the same; some 
go about for days, and even months, believing they 
are dreaming. 

" Death works no miracle,'* and you wake up 
here the same personality exactly that left the earth- 
plane. Your individuality is intact, and your 
" spirit-body " a replica of the one you have left, 
down to small details — even deformities remain, 
though I am told they lessen and disappear in time. 

This is what makes it so difficult to realize one 
has crossed the " great divide." If, when I woke 
to life here, I had found myself floating about the 
clouds clad in muslin and with a pair of wings, I 
should have realized the fact sooner. Incidentally, 
too, friends on earth would believe the stories of 



DEATH'S SURPRISES n 

those who have " passed on " more readily in a 
setting of the kind I have described. What they 
find difficult to understand apparently is the very 
little change between life in the physical body and 
in the spiritual. 

People with narrow, set, and orthodox beliefs are 
puzzled by the reality, the " ordinaryliness " (if I 
may coin a word), of the spirit-world. If it were 
described to them as " flashes of light," " mauve 
and sapphire clouds," " golden rivers," etc., it would 
more readily approximate with their preconceived 
ideas. They require " mystery " about this future 
life. 

I often laugh when I hear them complain they 
can't believe in " solid " things like houses and 
gardens in the spirit-world. 

These same folk have always believed readily 
enough in " solid " thrones, harps, crowns, etc., the 
perquisites of " the saved," which things obviously 
must be supported on other equally substantial sub- 
stances — the thrones and harps on and in material 
floors and hands, and the crowns on very solid 
heads, I imagine! 

The first time I was sent down to help our enemies 
I objected, but was told to remember they were 
fighting for what they believed to be right and in 



12 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

defense of their country too. I saw rather an in- 
teresting meeting between an Englishman and a 
German who had killed each other. They met face 
to face and looked at each other steadily. The 
Englishman held out his hand. His erstwhile en- 
emy, taking it, said, " What d fools we have 

been ! " . . . As a matter of fact, I am not doing 
so much battlefield work as many of the others, and 
only go when there has been severe righting and 
there is a great deal to do. Sometimes we are all 
needed; I am being trained to be a teacher. Yes, 
darling, I know you are surprised ; but, you remem- 
ber I used to be good at explaining things ; besides, 
you know too I was always rather " bossy ! " 

These are not a bit like the lessons I hated in the 
old days. I am studying science, which I always 
liked, — really and actually the science of life, the 
cause of things, — and something of the marvellous 
universe and of the natural laws which govern 
everything. There is nothing miraculous about 
them — in fact, there is no such thing as a " miracle." 
What seems so is merely a novel use of some exist- 
ing natural law. Nor can anything be " super- 
natural ;" it may be " super-normal." Man can 
create nothing; all new discoveries are merely fur- 
ther knowledge of how to use latent force or power. 



DEATH'S SURPRISES 13 

For instance, the vibrations harnessed by Marconi's 
ingenuity in " wireless " telegraphy have always 
existed; he learned how to utilize them. So, too, 
have the properties of radium, though it took years 
of scientific research to discover them. 

I realize enough, even in this short time, to know 
that the more one learns the more truly humble one 
becomes, because it is only then possible to know of 
the vast untouched fields of knowledge yet to be 
explored, and it is only very ignorant people in these 
days who say anything is " impossible " because it 
happens to be beyond their particular understanding. 

As to the theory that spiritual truths would have 
been " revealed " to us if we had been intended to 
know them, that is an argument that might be 
equally well applied to material matters. Neither 
railways, telegraphs, telephones, microscopes, 
X-rays, nor any other modern invention has been 
" revealed M to mankind without hard work; and if 
these " temporal things " have required so much 
effort, why should any one imagine that the spiritual 
things, which, being eternal, are so infinitely more 
valuable, should be given to man without any trouble 
on his part? 

After all, spiritual things can only be spiritually 
discerned. It is only striving for truth that makes 



i 4 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

the spirit grow; to lull it into a state of lethargy- 
does not help it to develop. 

I tell you what it is: unless the Church wakes 
up and moves with the times it will cease to exist 
in the future. The war has given it a great opport- 
unity. 

Men will no longer be content with platitudes 
and unreasoning belief. You must satisfy their 
minds as well as their hearts, which is possible now 
that science and religion are not antagonistic. 

Men cannot now be frightened with tales of hell 
fire. They have learned that many roads lead to 
God. There is no " right of way " which is a per- 
quisite of any particular form of religion. The 
only one that will influence men at all is one that 
is full of common sense, that makes everyday 
life worth living, and death no longer a dreaded 
visitor but even a friend, for indeed it may be 
that. 

This knowledge would not make earth life of 
less but of greater value, for we should then realize 
and appreciate the fact that we are in the world to 
be trained, to develop character, and learn self- 
discipline. It would teach us to bear trials bravely 
and with understanding, that now seem uncalled for 
and senseless. We should know that this earth life 



DEATH'S SURPRISES 15 

is only the " school-time " and preparation of the 
fuller life that follows. 

My duty and my business in future is to teach 
as I am being taught, for every one works here as 
he is best fitted. In helping others in some way or 
other, many help those they love and have left on 
earth, if they can get through to people there as 
I can to you; but for those whose relatives, either 
through ignorance, fear, disbelief, or religious big- 
otry, do not desire to get into touch with them, 
there is work to be done by helping less developed 
spirits on the lower spheres. 

Do you know, I often bring men home to see 
you who are not in touch with their own people, to ; 
prove to them that some at least on earth realize 
we are still " living." 

I can't understand the people who say that " spirit 
return is possible, but wrong," because only 
" devils " or " evil spirits " can communicate. 
Surely God would not reserve this His great com- 
fort and gift, the assurance of continued conscious 
existence, solely for the wicked? 



CERTAIN " MUNDANE " MATTERS 

I am living on the third Sphere or Plane; we call 
it " Summerland, ,, and some people " Paradise." 

To turn to more mundane matters, darling, you 
want to know how I eat? Well, my body absorbs 
all the nourishment it requires from the atmosphere, 
like the leaves of trees do. 

Even the air round the earth contains in different 
degrees and solutions most of the elements that 
form our physical bodies there. 

I don't actually sleep but I do sometimes feel 
tired, and then I lie down and rest, and refresh 
myself by bathing in the lake. 

Nothing can kill the soul, not even man himself; 
though sometimes, if before the final separation of 
body and soul the illness has been very severe, there 
has been brain disease, or the end has been violent 
and sudden, the shock to the soul is very great, and 
it may remain in a state of unconsciousness for 
many days or weeks, till it is recovered sufficiently 
to awake in its new conditions. You see, therefore, 
a suicide, far from escaping trouble, only goes from 

16 



CERTAIN "MUNDANE" MATTERS 17 

one form of misery to another; he cannot annihilate 
himself and pass to nothingness. 

How do I get about? I walk very often, at other 
times if necessary I generate sufficient power, which 
I concentrate by effort of will within my body, to 
take me anywhere with the speed of thought. Our 
bodies are so light and so strong, it is easy to jump 
the highest wall with the slightest effort; the at- 
mosphere has not the same resisting power to our 
bodies as it has to yours. 

How I shall laugh, Mum, when you come here 
and I see you jumping ten- foot walls ! 

Not that we do jump them, as it is not necessary, 
and we are particularly taught never to waste force 
or energy. 

When I first came over, I longed for you to be 
here, but I was told that your earth work was not 
accomplished, and I must be patient — there are so 
many wonderful things I want to show you and to 
tell you about. 

One reason why we have found it so easy to get 
into touch with each other is because we are both 
psychic. Of course we neither of us realized it 
before, but I can quite clearly understand and see it 
now, and I see other things so differently too in the 
light of all the knowledge I have gained. 



1 8 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Music, and flowers, and things I should have 
thought it rather " sentimental " to admire before, 
I thoroughly appreciate now. 

In the spirit-world there is a stronger affinity 
between the spirit and beautiful things than be- 
tween any physical connection on the earth-plane, 
perhaps because it is a more perfect expression of 
God. 

There are beautiful birds and exquisite flowers, 
and many pleasures. I go boating and golfing, but 
one must not take life in any form, so I no longer 
fish. 

You want to know about our houses ? Well, they 
are built by bricklayers and designed by architects 
as they would be on earth. 

In the spirit-world all work is equally honor- 
able, and each man does that for which he is most 
fitted ; if he is best at manual employment, he real- 
izes his limitations and has no foolish desire to ap- 
pear other than he is, as all work is done under 
beautiful conditions. All are happy and free. 

On earth certain forms of labor are looked down 
upon, because those who perform them are ill paid 
and live under distressful conditions; here all good 
work is recognized as valuable. 

It is curious on looking at the world to see how 



CERTAIN " MUNDANE " MATTERS 19 

many people there have chosen the wrong voca- 
tion. 

In the spiritual socialism that will be law in my 
Arcadia on earth some day, both the theoretical 
and practical men will realize their responsibilities 
to each other and will live to right wrong. 

The master will not say, " How little ? " but 
" How much can I afford to pay this man, to make 
his life agreeable, and not merely bearable? " And 
the man will do his best honorably to give honest 
and interested service in return as his right and 
share in the bargain. 

I have told you before how certain things are 
made here, just as they are on earth, largely of 
" gases." You see, vapors and " gases " from life- 
less matter are always rising from the earth. You 
can smell it in decaying things, such as flowers, 
wood, leaves, etc. These in disintegrating disperse 
quite a lot of matter into the air, which is deposited 
in the different spheres round the earth. 

The coarser on the lowest sphere, the finer rising 
to the higher, a sort of chemical action, or a kind 
of gravitation (acting in a different way to that on 
earth) attracts each density of gas to its suitable en- 
vironment — another example of the great law of 
the universe which we do not yet understand. 



ao CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Out of this deposit, concentrated into solids by 
chemical action, all substances here are made, such 
as bricks for the houses, material for clothes, etc. 

You want to know about clothes? Well, you 
can wear just what you like here ; there are no fash- 
ions to follow or appearances to keep up. Though 
a very mixed array is the consequence it does not 
seem incongruous, for here you dress to express 
yourself and not to impress your neighbors. 

I dress as I did with you, but some people wear 
white robes because they think when out of the 
mortal body it is the correct thing to do. If I chose 
to wear a tunic and sandals, or a " Beefeater's " 
get-up, no one would laugh and jeer; they would 
realize it made me happy, and that is reason 
enough. 

Mummy, dear, I quite understand how difficult 
all I tell you about my life here is for you to realize. 
I am quite sure in your place I should never believe 
it, but it's true all the same ! 

The more one studies science the more possible 
it seems to become. After all, the difficulty is in 
believing in things so real, so strong, so substantial, 
and yet to most people invisible. Yet, when you 
come to think of it, on earth there are many of the 
most " solid " things made of gases and elements, 



CERTAIN " MUNDANE" MATTERS 21 

which in their pure state are invisible. A large 
proportion of our physical bodies, rocks (and 
some of the earth itself), for instance, are made 
of oxygen, which is impalpable as well as in- 
visible. 

Undeveloped people are those who live only 
through the senses and have not cultivated the in- 
tellect nor the spirit. To them what is impalpable 
seems " impossible.'' 

Some day we'll write some fairy tales of science 
together about the wonderful further knowledge to 
be gained here — it's all so extraordinarily interest- 
ing. 

We might write a novel together too, and call it 
" The Growth of a Soul," and trace its evolution 
through various incarnations. You and I have 
been through many together (in different con- 
nections, relationships, and sexes) ; that's why 
we are so particularly in affinity with one 
another. 

I'm not going to tell you you were " Boadicea," 
" Cleopatra," " Helen of Troy," or any other fa- 
mous or infamous female of past history, as I some- 
times hear spirit-wags telling other women, for 
they make fun sometimes at the expense of those 
on earth if they are vain or gullible. 



22 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Will you be shocked, Mum, if I tell you what I 
have recently done? (It sounds rather like the 
"Chamber of Horrors" at Madame Tussaud's.) 
I went down to the Astral plane, searched for and 
made friends with a murderer! He was a man 
who some years ago paid the extreme penalty for 
killing his wife. 

I did not seek him for curiosity, — that would 
have been unjustifiable, — but because I was trying 
to trace the cause which led to such a tragedy, and 
to find the " kink " in the man's character which 
made the deed to him seem excusable. I found X. 
a very decent chap, fond of animals and children, 
a quiet, inoffensive little fellow. He tells me he 
was driven positively mad by his wife; contempt 
and loathing ended in hate of her. 

She seems to have been an odious woman; he 
said she was coarse, unfaithful, drank to excess, and 
" nagged " without ceasing, till he absolutely became 
desperate. For about a year after he came over 
here he had a terrible time, because he was sullen 
and full of hate and rage; then he began to calm 
down and to see, however evil his plight had been, 
he had no right to take her life. As soon as the 
desire for improvement came, friends were ready to 
help him, and he is already much happier, and 



CERTAIN " MUNDANE " MATTERS 23 

working among those who come over full of misery 
and bitterness as he himself did. 

He never mentioned these unpleasant things 
about his wife at the trial, as he might have done 
in order to try and extenuate matters against him- 
self. Poor devil, he was more sinned against than 
sinning, I think! 

. . . You do not delay my progress, as was 
suggested to you, by keeping in touch with me. 
People on earth will not realize that you cannot 
" summon " spirits any more than you can compel 
men on earth to come and see you if they do not 
wish to do so. 

In the spirit-world people choose what is best 
for their own evolution. 

If mortals desire the companionship of spirit- 
friends merely for purposes of material gain, it does 
not of course do either of them much good; but 
when love is the motive and mutual help the desire, 
it is good for both, for helping others is the way 
of progress. 

There is a wedge now being driven in to open 
the door between the two worlds of matter and 
spirit, and I love to feel that I may be a tiny splinter 
of that wedge. 

This is an excellent opportunity of letting a little 



24 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

light and hope through which will help mankind, for 
I have explained to you the creative power of 
thought. At present the earth is enveloped in what 
looks like a thick grey mist caused by the thoughts 
of cruelty, rage, grief, and pain that are continually 
outpouring. 



THE CHRIST 

I know why you are all thinking especially of me 
to-day, darling. It's an anniversary, my birthday — 
into the spirit-world, I mean. I am not going to 
call it the day I was " killed." 

I do truly feel hundreds of years older some- 
times. I seem to have learnt so much since I came 
over, and yet at other times I sit at your feet and 
rest my head against your knee, and it seems as if 
I were a little boy again, and all these things had 
never happened ! 

Yes, I have seen Christ once, Mummy, and, re- 
membering how awe-inspiring the occasion was, 
cannot help wondering how any one could imagine 
at death they would go straight to His kingdom, 
when most of us have done so little to earn that 
beatitude ! 

I was told I should be allowed to see Him, but 
honestly at the time I did not realize or appreciate 
the fact. I thought it would probably mean going 
to a very high church with an elaborate ritual of 
pomp and ceremony. When the appointed time 
came, my guides provided me with a plain white 

25 



26 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

robe to wear (you cannot attend the court of an 
earthly king without suitable garments), and we 
passed through connecting shafts to the Christ- 
sphere. 

My general impression was that of brightness, 
almost dazzling; the air scintillated like diamonds 
— it almost crackled, it was so full of electricity; 
my feet had not a very firm grip of the ground. 

There were bands and processions of people, 
white-robed, all going in one direction. They 
moved with uplifted faces, singing beautiful music. 

We joined the rear of one group, and were al- 
most swept along on a tide of intense feeling. 

We came to a building without any walls. It 
consisted of a roof, which seemed to be composed 
of interwoven rays of light of different colors, sup- 
ported by pillars which looked as if they were made 
of mother-of-pearl. 

There were crowds of people all round, and raised 
above all others stood one glowing, radiant figure. 
I knew at once it was Christ, and instinctively fell 
on my knees (though He is not like any picture I 
have ever seen). I was so conscious of Him that 
I felt as if He was bending over me. His eyes 
seemed to penetrate me, and produce a wonderful 
glow. I felt uplifted in a culminating thrill of 



THE CHRIST 27 

ecstasy. He was speaking, but I could not hear the 
words. 

As I knelt there, many events of my life passed in 
review through my mind. I could visualize them 
as pictures. My memory seemed stored with rec- 
ords, not alone of the life I had just left, but of 
others in the far-away past; and as the various 
scenes presented themselves I seemed to realize the 
different lessons I had learned through these expe- 
riences, and to know that all the events of my life 
had been leading up to this. 



OF REINCARNATION 

You want to know how it is I now believe in rein- 
carnation, and say that other spirits you find do 
not? Well, darling, we are still very far from 
ultimate truth, and people here vary in their opin- 
ions and ideas just as they did on earth. We are 
still learning, Mum; we have only gone a little 
farther along the road of experience, and have by 
no means reached the end of the journey. Yes, 
there is a Heaven, but it is a long way off and has 
yet to be earned; even our very bodies, which are 
still fairly material, will have to become more re- 
fined before we are fitted for that. 

I am told by friends here, that souls are some- 
times reborn, reincarnated, in order to gain further 
experience, learn more life-lessons, or work out past 
sins and failings. Each earth life leaves its mark 
on character, and its lessons are for ever imprinted 
on the subconscious mind, which registers every- 
thing that has ever happened to the soul from the 
beginning. This, they say, explains much of the 
pain and trouble you see on earth. The sufferers 
are learning lessons which are necessary for their 

38 



OF REINCARNATION 29 

souls' growth, for man was put into the world to 
develop the spiritual. They may have lived before, 
and neglected to learn them, or they may be new 
souls going through these experiences in one or 
other of the stages of their existence; it is all on 
the road of their evolution. 

Families, friends, sections of nations in the re* 
volving cycle of time reincarnate together very 
often, as they require the same experiences. 

When you begin to think seriously about the sub- 
ject and look and study the people about you, you 
will be able to recognize that some people are old 
souls and others new. 

Past experiences, though not consciously remem- 
bered, tone down crudities of character. Old souls 
have a sympathy, a strength, taught of pain and 
discipline, and are therefore considerate for others. 
When one knows many of the exceptionally gifted 
young men who have passed over in this war, one 
realizes they may have been old souls who gained 
their experience in the past and returned to earth 
for a glorious culmination in this supreme sacrifice. 

I have often heard people ask why God permits 
wickedness. If it were impossible for man to sin, 
he would no longer be a free agent but an autom- 
aton. As man is on earth to learn his lesson and 



30 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

develop his soul, he must have his mettle proved. 
There would be no good without evil. Contrasts 
exist and are necessary; just as day and night, wet 
and fine, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are only 
realized and appreciated through their opposites. 

Old souls have learnt also to keep in touch with 
and draw from the " God-force " the actual Source 
of Life. Psychically developed people are especially 
in contact with it. 

The soul has a separate consciousness. Many 
people's souls leave their bodies in sleep habitually, 
or under anaesthetics, and travel to various places; 
some, on awaking, are able to remember the scenes 
they have visited — and this memory can be culti- 
vated. So you see the difference between sleep and 
death for some people is not very great after all, 
nor the passing painful nor difficult. It only means 
on one occasion they leave their bodies to return no 
more. 

With reference to the discussion in the paper on 
" reincarnation," you say some women think it al- 
most a desecration to believe their babies have lived 
before and been perhaps even " harlots," " thieves," 
or other undesirable persons. This sounds as if they 
presupposed themselves to be new souls. 

I am told, whatever those babies may have been 



OF REINCARNATION 31 

in previous lives {if they have lived on earth be- 
fore), their mothers have earned those particular 
babies. 

I mean, souls don't return promiscuously to any 
body, in any family. There is a sequence in their 
lives that necessitates their coming to one particular 
environment. It is part of the natural law, and 
works automatically. 

Their mothers may have owed them something 
— a debt of love they failed to pay in a previous 
existence, or a trust they betrayed. 

If the baby had been a " harlot " in the past, 
perhaps the mother in those days was the lover who 
first betrayed her, or even a vain, cruel, careless, 
or neglectful mother before, who failed in her duty 
to her child, and was the cause of her downfall. 

Perhaps that child or another is sent to her that 
she may " make good;" it may be her opportunity. 
People should always do a kindness when they can, 
even if it is not appreciated or acknowledged, for 
it may be a chance of repaying a debt. 

Souls do not come in the same relationship to 
each other every time, and not even as the same 
sex sometimes. A well-developed soul is one that 
has functioned in both sexes, and so has gained ex- 
perience. 



32 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

To look at it another way, it is also equally open 
to every woman to believe (or hope) if she likes 
that she and her baby did such good work when 
they were in the world before, that they have come 
back to continue it, for this happens too sometimes. 

Here we are continually taught that the highest 
service is to help one another, and this is the best 
way for some people to do it. 

I promised I would tell you all I had learnt of 
our previous lives together, yours and mine. It is 
not very much. 

My guides showed me a number of pictures in a 
series of visions illustrating these lives. 

There must have been many more than I know 
anything of, for in the first we were versed in many 
of the occult mysteries and rites of ancient Egypt. 
I saw that country thousands of years ago. There 
were wonderful buildings with huge pillars, and the 
dazzling sunshine and heat of the East. 

We were brother and sister, I was told, and were 
attached to the court of the Pharaoh, a sort of 
" lady and gentleman in waiting." We also had a 
great deal to do with the temple, and the priests, and 
religious services. It was probably in this connec- 
tion we were at the court. 

I know we spent much time walking in the temple 



OF REINCARNATION 33 

processions, and I saw you a tall woman, with a 
good figure and an upright carriage, in a purple 
robe and overdress trimmed with gold, and a sort 
of cloak of some skin falling at your back, your 
forehead bound low down with a broad fillet of gold 
with hieroglyphics on it. You wore bracelets of 
gold and other ornaments in the way of earrings 
and necklaces. (You looked jolly fine, Mum!) 

I used to wear on these occasions a sort of tunic 
trimmed with gold, and sandals laced up to the knee 
with the same precious metal. I was quite pleased 
with my appearance, till I discovered that I also 
wore an enormous wig that stuck out a foot round 
my head in every direction. It amused me very 
much. I must have looked a perfect sight! But 
if that was the fashion at the time, I have no doubt 
I was very pleased with the effect then. I don't 
know what happened, or our subsequent history, on 
that occasion. 

In the next scene we were walking along a dusty 
Eastern road in Palestine. The country on either 
side looked sun-baked, and rough, and bare, with 
a few thorny bushes growing here and there. This 
time you were a young matron about twenty-two, 
and were carrying your baby. You were wearing 
a blue robe embroidered round the edge, and a 



34 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

kind of veil over your head. (You had the face 
of a Madonna.) You were the wife of a notary, a 
man known for his goodness and benevolence. 

I was about nineteen, a girl too, your bosom 
friend, and in the scene I describe was walking be- 
side you with my arm round your waist. We were 
Christians, and it was in the early days of Christ- 
ianity. 

That time I was shown the end of the life story. 
Some terrible plague, or epidemic, broke out in 
Jerusalem, and you and I used to go among the sick 
poor carrying food and medicine. Later, I saw you 
in a comatose condition at the point of dissolution, 
while I knelt beside you, stricken too, and praying 
that death should not divide us. What happened to 
your husband and the baby I don't know. 

The next scene was, I should imagine, somewhere 
in the Near East (possibly in the Balkans). This 
time we were both young men, brothers. We wore 
picturesque garments (rather like a musical 
comedy), and seemed to be leaders of a band of 
fighters, and we appeared to enjoy our rough, wild 
life thoroughly. What happened to us later I don't 
know. Yes ! it does seem as if we had not " ad- 
vanced " much that time. Perhaps we required to 
be more strenuous, and so were given the opport- 



OF REINCARNATION 35 

unity of cultivating what is commonly called " grit !" 

There are new souls, too, always coming into the 
world, and I am told much of the sin in it is due to 
ignorance and inexperience; so, too, is the narrow- 
mindedness. 

When anyone is sure they know everything, or 
think they understand the limitations of nature, or 
are bigoted in religious matters, you can believe it 
is that they have very little soul-experience, for old 
souls learn the tremendous power of God, and 
realize how infinitesimal is man. 

I have never seen a spirit yet who has seen God, 
and yet here you know you live because you are just 
a particle from the Divine. . . . 

You say it hurt you to hear that poor woman 
who spoke through the other medium the other 
day; she seemed so terribly unhappy and uncom- 
fortable. Well, poor woman, she was so unready to 
pass out of the world. She was killed suddenly 
through an accident while in perfect health. 

She was a very worldly woman, and could not 
believe it when she came to herself and found she 
had left her mortal body. She had no real belief 
in " life after death," and felt she was in a dream 
and a very unhappy one, for, alas for herself, she 
had in her life on earth laughed her husband out 



36 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

of all belief in it too ! And she realized the difficulty 
she would have in undoing this mistake. 

As you make the conditions of your own life after 
death by your state of spiritual development, you 
can imagine some people, whose spiritual faculties 
have dwindled till they have become atrophied, — 
almost a negligible quantity, in fact, — can see no 
beauty here; in fact, they live under unpleasant 
conditions. 

Some people are earth-bound. All their interests 
are there, and they return for that contact with men 
and the old conditions they crave. 

I know it is difficult to understand why discarnate 
souls should still hanker after material and some- 
times gross pleasures. It is because while on earth 
their senses ruled them, and stamped and coarsened 
the soul, instead of the spirit refining and purifying 
the body. 

As I have already told you, for some time after 
people come here they continue to feel as if they 
were still in a mortal body. You can realize this in 
a small way from what is, alas, a common occurrence 
nowadays. Any soldier who has had the misfortune 
to lose a limb will tell you he can feel pain, discom- 
fort, or irritation in it for days after it has been 
amputated. 



OF REINCARNATION 37 

In this way spirits continue for some time after 
they have left them to " feel " their bodies after 
death, and you know from experience now that the 
first time a spirit returns through a medium, the 
death condition is generally reproduced or indicated. 



GUIDES, INSPIRATION, AND GOD 

You say you have heard so much of " Spirit- 
guides " to people on earth, and want to know who 
appoints these, and why? "Guardian Angels" I 
suppose they used to be called. Well, no one ap- 
points them; they are spirit-friends attracted by 
something in the individual which appeals to them, 
and they try to influence and help those in whom 
they take an interest. 

They may be earth-friends or relatives who hav- 
ing passed on still keep the bond of affection that 
held them while here, though they are often strang- 
ers attracted by mutual interests, who try literally 
to inspire those on earth. This does not mean in 
religious matters only; it applies to art, science, 
engineering, medicine, or any other subject. Can't 
you imagine a musician here, revelling in beautiful 
harmonies, trying to instil into the mind of an 
earthly musician some of the glorious sound which 
gives him such joy, and which he knows will benefit 
and uplift those still in the " bonds of the flesh " ? 
or an artist surrounded by this exquisite beauty try- 
ing to inspire the mind of a friend, so that he may 

38 



GUIDES, INSPIRATION, AND GOD 39 

see with truer, clearer vision the hidden wonders 
that surround him? or a man of science or an 
engineer trying to impress the mind of a friend on 
earth with a new discovery or invention ? 

These things are being done every day, and the 
" flashes of genius " which illumine the world occa- 
sionally are the result of the influence of spirit- 
minds on the minds of those still in the world. 
When men realize it is possible to get help from these 
sources they will do great things, for to those who 
have passed on, the sources of information, though 
not limitless, are vast in comparison with those 
on earth. The secrets of Atlantis and ancient Egypt 
are obtainable if they care to work to learn them. 

I have told you here, too, " like attracts like." 
If a human being is spiritually and intellectually 
undeveloped, and lives only in the senses, the spirit- 
friends he attracts are of a very undesirable order. 
They are the souls of those who had no wish to live 
anything but a life of animal gratification, and still 
hang about the world and their old haunts contin- 
ually, trying to get a kind of second-hand indirect 
pleasure from the doings of the people who now 
follow in their footsteps. 

Having told you something of " Guides/' I will 
tell you now of some charming Elementals, and 



4 o CLAUDE'S BOOK 

I'll give you an epigram, Mum. " Everything in 
animal life and the flower and vegetable kingdom in 
its highest development takes a certain resemblance 
to humanity, because the human entity is the highest 
expression of life demonstrating in a physical way 
on the earth-plane." For instance, you know when 
a dog or horse is loved and cared for by anyone it 
is said the animal becomes " almost human " in its 
intelligence. There are nature thought-forms, some 
of which are made by the emanations, the " excess 
life," as it were, from the flowers. These are the 
so-called " Fairies," which are not, as we supposed 
when we outgrew childhood, merely a charming 
figment of imagination, but actually exist and were 
seen in the beginning by those who lived in touch 
with nature and had unspoiled eyes to see the won- 
ders and beauties of God's world. These creatures 
have intelligence without being intellectual, and are 
almost human in form. You want to know why 
they take this form? Well, all life must take some 
form when it emanates, and why not this? After 
all, there is no resemblance between the tiny seed 
you sow in the ground and the beautiful flower that 
springs from it eventually. The thought-forms of 
flowers are the spirit side of their life on the physical 
plane, and they are stronger than human thought- 



GUIDES, INSPIRATION, AND GOD 41 

forms, for the life that goes to them is a steady con- 
tinuous stream, while that supplied by human 
thought varies and fluctuates. 

The flowers here have no spirit- forms, for they 
are themselves spirits. 

I know you sometimes find it very difficult to 
follow my explanations, and I find it difficult to 
explain, for our experiences are limited, and lan- 
guage is limited and is inadequate to express spirit- 
ual things. It is like trying to explain the glories 
of a splendid sunset to a man who was born blind. 
After all, we can only judge things by past im- 
pressions, and when these are lacking we can only 
believe, if we are willing to accept them, through 
" faith the evidence of things unseen." . . . 

You want to know what I feel about Religion 
now, and if my ideas on reincarnation have changed 
my ideas of Christ? Well, darling, I will answer 
the last question first. 

I believe that Christ is a great and wonderful 
personality, a great Spirit in the form of a man, as 
near as possible to God, because the God-force 
plays so strongly in and through Him, a fit instru- 
ment and receiver of that power. 

There was a specific reason why Christ was sent. 
God specially directed Him; the consciousness of 



42 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

God within Him was very acute. He knew He was 
the instrument and child of God. 

He was sent to be man's example for all time, to 
teach how pure, and holy, and simple, and dignified, 
and useful, and beautiful life could be without any 
of the material aids of money or social position, 
and to prove the individual continuity of life after 
death. But He did not come to save men from the 
results of their sins. It is a comfortable theory, 
but not true. 

Here we learn that every man has to earn his 
own salvation. Sin is a breaking of God's laws, and 
carries its own inviolable consequences, which must 
be worked out by each individual personally. You 
might as well set the law of gravity in motion and 
expect it not to act. 

Christ's followers claimed His death as a sacri- 
fice for sin, for they naturally looked upon God 
only as the people of their day knew Him — that is, 
as a tyrannical Jehovah whose altars ran with the 
blood of sacrificed animals. 

As man evolves he gets nearer spiritual truth, 
and we know here that this is infinitely greater and 
more wonderful than anything ever yet told. One 
realizes the presentation of God usually taught on 
earth is utterly incorrect. He is not a glorified 



GUIDES, INSPIRATION, AND GOD 43 

mortal sitting on a golden throne, not a vengeful 
nor jealous God — not, in a way, even a " personal " 
God to be propitiated to grant special gifts to a 
favored few. He is not finite, but infinite; but, 
because it is so difficult to realize so vast a fact, we 
feel on earth we want to locate and limit our idea of 
God to bring it within our understanding. 

God is everywhere and in everything : in the trees, 
in the flowers, in the air, and in the sunshine. God 
is all good, all beauty, all purity. 

God is not limited, nor existing only in the seven 
spheres, He is also in the space beyond, for He fills 
all space. 

The whole Universe is of God; the Planets re- 
volve from the power of God within them, touched 
and supported by power without. 

God is creative, from Him all life springs. Ele- 
mental man is a manifestation of God-power 
through form, which in the lower creation is mani- 
fest in a different way, though he can deteriorate to 
less than they. 

All life as projected into human bodies is there- 
fore a " bit of God," and we are in consequence 
truly His sons and by that fact immortal. 

God works automatically. Those who live har- 
moniously with His laws san draw great power; 



44 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

they find too, in time, that soul satisfaction which 
brings the peace that passes all understanding. 

I don't only know this, but feel actually con- 
scious of it : if you are a ray of the sun you cannot 
mistake yourself for a tallow candle. This is why 
it is untrue and incorrect to teach men they are 
" miserable sinners " by birth. The body is not the 
man; his spirit is of God. However ignorant of 
the fact a man may be, his soul away in its dim con- 
sciousness knows this, and often in an emergency 
the " spark divine " asserts itself, and the man 
rises to the great occasion. It has been proved many 
times in this war. 

God's laws are so steady, so regular, so business- 
like, they can operate to great advantage in commer- 
cialism or organization of any kind on earth, pro- 
vided these things are brought into line with them. 



A DAY'S WORK 

You want me to give you details of a typical 
day of my life? You know there is no time here — 
that is only a limitation of the earth-plane — so we 
will make it a day by your calculations, and suppose 
we begin at midnight, for that is when I come for 
you. 

You know, for I have often told you, how when 
your body sleeps your soul comes over here and 
we spend hours together, you have sometimes dimly 
remembered things that happened as in a dream. 
Thousands of people come over in this way every 
night, and are more awake and alive while here than 
on earth in their mortal bodies. To do this, people 
must be spiritually evolved to a certain degree. 
Well, we go together to various places; sometimes 
we work on the third sphere among those who have 
just wakened in the spirit-world, and are bewildered, 
and puzzled, and strange in their new surroundings. 
We explain to them where they are and bring their 
friends to see them. 

I know it seems curious to you that you should 
be able to do this even better than I, as you are still 

45 



46 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

in a mortal body ; but that is the very reason. You 
see, you are the " half-way house," as it were, for 
along that little cord that connects your soul and 
body are travelling thoughts and desires of the 
world in which you live. You are therefore more 
in touch with the earth and bring its atmosphere 
with you, and so feel more familiar to one who has 
just come over. You are still controlled and limited 
by your earth-body while connected with it. 

Night before last we were helping a boy whom 
we could not make realize his new condition, when 
his mother came, to whom he had been devoted 
(she had been in the spirit-world two years). He 
burst into tears and said, " I know now I am dream- 
ing, for my mother is dead and I shall never see her 
again." His mother put her arms round him and 
kissed him, and we left them together. 

The meetings and reconciliations here are wonder- 
ful and touching; you and I often hug each other 
for very joy and sympathy. . . . 

On other occasions I take you to see one of the 
beautiful scenes in the higher spheres which I have 
described to you. We have been together to the 
" Blue " country, where there are a series of won- 
derful mountains which impress one by their curi- 



A DAY'S WORK 47 

ously calm grandeur : no rugged rocks, nor jagged 
outlines; the heights are majestic but smooth and 
rounded, and surround one on every side. As far 
as eye can see the color everywhere is blue of vary- 
ing shades, from almost grey on the mountain-tops 
to purple in the valleys, and every intermediate shade 
wonderfully blended in between. ,«, 

Color has wonderful properties. In this case 
each color is confined to a certain particular locality. 
For a few miles away everything is varied in the 
normal manner. There is also a " Pink " country 
and a " Yellow " one. You get these effects on 
earth sometimes for a few minutes in the glow of a 
sunset. 

Blue is a spiritual color, pink a love condition, 
and yellow an intellectual one. 

These color-effects help spirits, not by giving, 
but by stimulating the perception of those particular 
qualities. As you know, here in the " Summerland " 
spirits are still learning and progressing, but are 
very far from perfection. 

Many come over here well developed mentally 
but lacking in spirituality; others are very spiritual 
but require that mental quality which is necessary 
if their spirituality is to be more than a divine 
ecstasy; while same have neglected to cultivate 



48 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

along with these good gifts enough of that love 
and charity which is essential to those who are will- 
ing to bear each other's burdens and so fulfill that 
law of Christ, which is the true way of progress. 

People on earth are now recognizing the proper- 
ties of color and are beginning to use it in a small 
way. It is useful for the cure of certain diseases, 
for it has a marked effect on mental conditions, and, 
as you know, various colored lights cause certain 
curious changes in plants and flowers. 

When it is time for you to return I take you back 
and then go home for a rest. I bathe in the lake, 
and, refreshed, go either to earth again to help on 
the battlefield, or if I am not required for that I go 
on with my study of psychic laws. 

After this, it would now be your afternoon, I 
have some recreation and amuse myself; later I go 
to look up friends on earth. On other days I listen 
to music, which is beautiful here beyond description : 
it thrills one. You know I used not to care very 
much about it on earth before I came over. 

Tell Daddy when he plays the piano in the even- 
ings I see his music in " colors " all the time. 
Nearly all major keys are like primary colors: 
" C " and " G " specially look red and yellow, " E " 
not so decidedly; " D," " F," and " A " are second- 



A DAY'S WORK 49 

ary colors such as mauve and green and certain 
shades of violet. 

" B " is white. The sharps and flats are varieties 
of these; they tinge of blended colors. The colors 
vary in relation to the other notes played; for in- 
stance, " C " sharp, though actually the same note 
on the piano, is different when used as " D " flat. 

Occasionally I talk to most interesting people, 
men who were noted on earth and left their mark 
there as great statesmen, scholars, poets, musicians, 
teachers, etc. There, of course, I should never 
have known them, — differences of age, wealth, posi- 
tion, etc., would have made it impossible, — but 
here there are no artificial barriers, and a com- 
munity of interest is a sufficient bond of friend- 
ship. 

You say you are surprised some of the men I 
mentioned have not progressed higher. Well, they 
could have done had they so desired, but many are 
anxious to help those on earth still, to see work and 
ideas through that they themselves originated; oth- 
ers have remained to help their friends through this 
world crisis. 

When you get beyond the third sphere contact 
becomes more difficult, and it is only when you be- 
gin to feel " impersonal " and have no direct inter- 



50 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

est left in people on the earth-plane that you desire 
to go on. 

Eventually these spirits will probably progress 
more quickly through this work, for as they give 
help to those below it is also given to them, accord- 
ing to their needs, by higher spirits. 

The law of compensation works in this way even 
in your world, for there, if love is given unselfishly, 
generously, and wisely, it will be returned in greater 
measure by spirits in the higher life by thought and 
influence which will materialize according to the 
requirements of the earth-plane. 

Meanwhile, life is very happy here and full of 
interest; even the grief and pain of those you love 
and have left behind does not affect one in the old 
way, for one can see beyond the trouble of the day 
and know it is only for a little while. 



VARIOUS PEOPLE, CHILDREN, AND 
AFFINITIES 



What makes this place so interesting is the variety 
of the people in it, just as the world is interesting 
for the same reason. It would be very dull if 
human beings were all exactly of the same stereo- 
typed pattern physically and mentally. I think that 
is what made the old idea of the conventional 
Heaven so uninviting ; either you would have had to 
lose all individuality and become an " angel to pat- 
tern," so as to be suitable to the environment, or else 
one would have to lose one's sense of humor; for 
can't you imagine the idea of one's friends, large 
and small, old and young, fat and thin, some with 
some knowledge of music, others with none at all, 
sitting, clad in white, playing harps? 

As a matter of fact, when we do eventually get 
to that Heaven which I believe exists, we probably 
shall have become " stereotyped " to a certain extent, 
for we shall be so refined as to have become " all 
spirit," and so nearer God. Probably our joy then 
may be in music, for it is, I suppose, the most 
exquisite sense, and even here it has held me thrilled 

51 



52 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

and spellbound ; and you know I am not musical, and 
could rarely rise to anything higher than a catchy, 
popular melody, or " chopsticks/' to which you so 
much objected ! 

I suppose these ideas in the first place started 
through the visions of saints who did not realize 
they were seeing states " afar off," and thought 
they were conditions soon after death. . . . 

One amusing man I have met here is quite a 
" crank " in his way. He says he thinks, after 
having passed through the seven spheres of which 
we have heard, that spirits must pass on still 
farther, as otherwise even these places would be 
overcrowded eventually: he thinks they may go to 
the moon ! He has no grounds for this theory; it is, 
he acknowledges, purely his own idea! If reincarna- 
tion is a fact, as I believe it is, then of course there 
would be no overcrowding, for so large a number of 
spirits are constantly returning for further earth 
experience. In any case, as it is probably several 
thousands of years away, there will be plenty of 
opportunity to study it farther on ! 

I also know some men here who are very keen 
on engineering and are trying to invent labor- 
saving devices of every kind. 

They think it will be possible to invent tiny 



PEOPLE, CHILDREN, AND AFFINITIES 53 

machines which will enable men to fly, not by sitting 
in an aeroplane, but by propelling each individual 
separately through the air — not high, just a little 
above the ground. It would require very great 
power very much compressed into a small space, so 
that you could strap, say, a large knapsack on your 
back and sail along above the ground without 
fatigue. It may come some day, but not in your 
time, I think, Mum. 

Another man I know thinks moving pavements 
raised about fifteen feet above the road, on the 
principle of the staircases at the tube stations, will 
be used in large and crowded cities. 

They would go in one direction on one side of 
the road and in the opposite on the other, with stairs 
and stationary .platforms at intervals. There would 
be no attendants required, for no tickets would be 
necessary ; the expenses would go on to the rates and 
it would be free to all — though I acknowledge the 
small boys would find it irresistible till they got used 
to the novelty of it! This would save a certain 
amount of vehicular traffic. There would still be the 
ordinary pavement below for those who wished to 
walk slowly or shop-gaze. 

• •••'•' ,•* 

You want to know something further about the 



54 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

children who come over? You remember at first 
you were quite surprised when I described your 
brother John to you, and did not recognize him 
when I told you he was a grown-up man; you had 
always thought of him as still remaining a little 
child. 

He looks only about my age : of course in earth- 
life he would have been over forty. Here little 
ones grow up but never become old, for they have 
no cares and worries nor the pains of a material 
body to trouble them. 

Many women here care for these little ones. 
Some have left children on earth they loved ; others, 
the childless, who love children, look after them. 
Every child, even if unwanted on earth, can find a 
loving mother here. 

Many an earth-mother comes over at night when 
her body sleeps to see her baby, and though with 
her limited conscious mind she may think of it as 
an infant always, her spirit-mind knows the facts, 
as she will recognize when she herself comes here 
permanently. These children grow in soul and mind 
and body, which is just as strong and more substan- 
tial than an earth-body, for it is indestructible. 

They are all beautiful in varying degrees. They 
learn very quickly, for their minds are open: they 



PEOPLE, CHILDREN, AND AFFINITIES 55 

have no consciousness that evil exists, so more 
readily absorb all they are taught here, and they 
very soon go on to the higher planes. 

While on the third sphere they return to earth to 
play with children there. It is part of their educa- 
tion, and enables them to understand, and so later 
to help others still in the mortal body. 

As many children in the world are clairvoyant 
they often see these spirit playfellows, and if they 
could keep this consciousness it would often be a 
help to them in later life. 

Unfortunately, many grown-up people who do 
not understand these facts discourage the idea, and 
so in time the child loses this consciousness. The 
children here all see Christ: they seem to instinc- 
tively understand Him and His Mother. Having 
occupied a mortal body such a short time they easily 
go back to the things of the Spirit. . . . 

Now you want to know what happens when *one 
of a married pair dies young and the other lives to 
be old ? Well, it depends to a certain degree on the 
life of the one left on earth as to what extent death 
separates them. The few years of time would not 
actually make much difference. I will give you some 
examples of cases I know here, and explain through 
them what I mean. The actual soul does not " age " 



56 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

permanently, though it carries the impress of the 
body when it first comes over, but by degrees here, 
freed from material cares, the signs of " age " 
disappear and the spirit-body looks like that of an 
adult in the prime of life and in perfect health. You 
can't tell by looking at a person in the ordinary way 
on the earth-plane how their souls would look at 
first on release from the body; you might judge from 
the character, perhaps. 

I know a man here (let's call him "Charles") 
who came over fourteen years ago, leaving his wife 
(we never speak of widows here), to whom he was 
devoted. They were true affinities and spiritually 
developed people, and though not spiritualists pro- 
fessedly she was so conscious of her husband's 
continued existence that she lived as far as she 
could as she knew he would wish. 

She neglected no duties, made no parade of her 
great grief, and studied in every way in order to be 
his mental and spiritual equal when she should 
rejoin him. She came over recently, and on this 
account looks as young as he does. 

I know another case of a different kind (let's 
call the husband " Tom "), of a young couple mar- 
ried at the beginning of the war. He was killed 
at the Front a year after. 



PEOPLE, CHILDREN, AND AFFINITIES 57 

His wife made a great parade of her grief, wore 
elaborate, expensive, and becoming mourning, and 
even contemplated suicide, but decided it was too 
painful! She then found she could get into com- 
munication with Tom. Eventually he was not per- 
mitted to return to speak to her, for she only 
wanted him to help her in various material ways, 
and made him unhappy with continual reproaches 
and grumbling. Being out of the physical world he 
was no longer in a position to help her there, but 
she had no interest in spiritual or even intellectual 
things. Under these circumstances her soul will 
not of course develop properly, and so will " age " 
for lack of care. 

She has married again, but " Tom " does not 
grieve; he quite understands they were unsuited to 
one another, and had they lived on earth longer to- 
gether would soon have discovered it. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION 

There is no subject probably that requires to be 
considered with such care as this of " spiritualism." 
You understand how essential it is to use your own 
judgment in the matter, and common sense in 
weighing all you are told. 

There are so many limitations to be considered 
— the sitter's, the medium's, and the spirit's; and 
these are very severe. 

In communicating, the spirit-message comes first 
from the spirit, who has to concentrate to give it 
to the " control " (the spirit actually using the 
medium's organization), who has to impress it on 
the medium's brain to such an extent that the nerves 
and muscles of the mouth and tongue of the medium 
will respond to the action of the brain, and will 
speak the message as it has been given. 

I often think it wonderful how much does come 
through, when one realizes the many difficulties. 

The bias of the medium's mind, impressions from 
the sitter's subconscious self, unconscious telepathy 
from other minds, and so forth, all have to be 
taken into consideration. 

Telepathy is not so easy as some people imagine; 
58 



DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION 59 

if it were, there would be no difficulty in satisfying 
any sitter who went to a medium, for they would 
only have to do some mind-reading, whereas many 
go empty away. 

You say spirits so often through mediums say that 
the sitters have great work to do, wonderful talents, 
etc., and you can't understand it, as these people 
do nothing in particular eventually. Well, their 
spirit-friends may see they have the capacity; as to 
whether they will make use of it is another matter. 
Just as in school a master may realize that many 
of his boys have exceptional talent in various direc- 
tions, and may say so, it does not follow that they 
will do well in life, for it entirely depends on their 
use of their capabilities. By being told of their 
possibilities, their ambition may be roused to make 
special efforts. 

Try and develop your own psychic powers, if they 
are sufficient to make it worth your while for your 
own comfort, and certainly every one should try and 
cultivate " spiritual gifts." Of course they are not 
synonymous terms. It is possible to be very psychic 
and not at all spiritual. Psychic talent is a " gift," 
like music, painting, writing, etc., and like these 
can be used for beautiful and good things or the 
reverse. 



60 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Every one can learn to live in two planes, the 
material and the spiritual, to be a " practical 
mystic," to know the truths and wonders and 
beauties of the life spiritual as well as to perform 
the duties and enjoy the pleasures of the life 
physical. 

Many people would be great in the highest sense 
of the word, if they would only believe that the 
source of unlimited good and knowledge is there to 
draw upon. The supply is unlimited, the only 
limitation being their own capacity. 

We know and remember in the spirit-world every- 
thing that has happened in our earth-life (that is, 
if we wished to remember we could do so), as the 
subconscious mind is so active here. If I could 
come and speak to you direct with my spirit-mouth 
you would get any test you wanted, but as it is I 
have to operate through a strange brain and per- 
sonality. 

People sometimes say, " Why does my loved 
one not come to me direct ? " The " loved, 
one " probably does very often, but cannot make 
himself seen or heard, and if he could, might 
frighten his relatives if they did not under- 
stand. 

The " controls " chosen for mediums are generally 



DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION 61 

children or other what we call " uneducated people," 
because their brains are more or less " blank " and 
pliable ; otherwise you can imagine it would add still 
further difficulties and limitations to communica- 
tions. 



THE SPHERES AND THE SOURCE OF ALL 
POWER 

Our bodies here are not made of ether; we call 
them that as they are the bodies in which we mani- 
fest on the " Etheric " Sphere. 

Your physical bodies are walking about on a 
physical plane; they are of the earth earthy. 
Though you call them " physical " they do not look 
like the earth really; they look like a thing apart. 

Our Sphere is in the Ether, resting on the Ether, 
not on nor near the earth-plane, nor interpenetrating 
the earth as some people think. Our Spheres are 
built of and formed in Ether, therefore you can 
call them " Spiritual " or " Etheric " planes as you 
like. My body as I exist on that Spiritual or 
Etheric plane is a spiritual or etheric body, just as 
my physical body was termed " physical " when I 
was functioning in the physical plane. We derive 
the name of the body from the plane we are on; 
" physical " body for physical plane, " astral " body 
for astral, and " etheric " body for etheric plane. 

My present body is made of chemicals, and gases, 
and atoms — atoms certainly of a finer kind than one 

62 



SPHERES AND SOURCE OF ALL POWER 63 

gets on the earth-plane. These are held together in 
much the same way as the atoms of the physical 
body, but this body does not disintegrate in the 
same way as the physical one does, because the life 
on the third Sphere is sure to be as long and perhaps 
many times longer than the one on the earth-plane. 

There is something substantial about my spirit- 
body. Suppose I had to leave the third Plane and to 
go to the fifth, sixth, or seventh Plane (for good I 
mean, not for a visit). I know then my entire 
etheric body would undergo a change : the atoms 
would be of a still lighter kind, because the nearer 
I go to the God-force, or Life-force, the more actual 
Life-force there is running through my body and 
holding those atoms together. 

Because of this greater force in the higher spheres 
we would require less chemical matter. 

On the third Plane the body in the way of its 
chemical constituents would be very much like that 
of the earth-plane — not so much in quantity, but 
the same in kind. Is it not correct that hydrogen 
and similar gases or chemicals can be obtained in a 
grosser or coarser or in a more refined state, a 
lighter state — lighter in pressure? Our bodies are 
made of the extremely refined variety. 

Take coal, Mummy, for example; you can set 



64 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

it alight in the raw state, and you have a coarse 
flame of gas, or even if we don't light it we know 
there is gas there of a coarse kind. 

If that gas is taken and put through certain pro- 
cesses it becomes purer and more refined in nature, 
simply because it has passed through those processes. 
It has passed through and over something, and is 
farther from its foundation in the lump of coal. 
The gas is drawn from the coal and blown right 
across steam, and when it reaches the other side it 
is caught in a purer state. 

Now we come to the point. The gases and chemi- 
cals that go to make up our physical bodies, we 
know, need not be drawn only from the surface, or 
just above it, of the earth-plane. 

We have proved those gases exist some distance 
from the earth-plane. The farther you go the purer 
and more refined in nature are those gases and 
chemicals. Just as your physical body is made of 
the grosser gases which belong to the earth-plane, 
so our bodies are made of the finer gases which exist 
in- the air or atmosphere of our plane. 

I'll give you a little chart (see page 7 2). Draw 
a round for the earth ; around that put seven circles 
one outside the other, for the seven spheres. Out- 
side those, filling all space, is an enormous force, an 



SPHERES AND SOURCE OF ALL POWER 65 

actual force which seems to contain or consist of 
many strong powers or forces that we think we 
have discovered on the earth-plane — electricity to 
wit, radium, etc.; but there are many more still 
undiscovered on the earth-plane, but which we 
know are contained in this, the God-force or Life- 
force. 

Electricity was always there, but we did not know 
how to use it. I am mentioning " radium " and 
" electricity " because you might otherwise ask me 
what force it is, and why we call it a force. We 
know it's a force because we know that everything 
that has life is animated by that force, and the 
farther you go from the earth-plane and the nearer 
you go to it the more you can feel the force. 

Electricity is only one of the many constituents 
of the force, but we know there are other manifesta- 
tions of power in it ; but we don't know what to call 
them yet, as they have not been discovered on the 
physical plane, where God meant all His work and 
all His goodness to be discovered by man. Man 
names these things and attains consciousness and 
understanding and control Over them. In the spirit- 
world we don't call them by a name, we understand 
it's one enormous power, and we don't give it a 
name — we just feel it, and know it's there; but as 



66 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

this power penetrates through the spirit-spheres and 
reaches the earth-plane it seems to become divided 
into different forms or manifestations of power — 
that is to say, it is in man's power to use it for 
different purposes. 

Though it seems to come in a massed condition, 
as it touches the earth-plane it divides itself into 
different manifestations or kinds of power. Man 
has only of late years learnt to use some of these 
powers and to draw off and conserve a certain part, 
such as electricity, for instance. With electricity he 
has learnt how to draw upon, to " generate it," as 
he calls it — which means he has learnt to draw part 
of the massed power and to convert it to one par- 
ticular species of form of power. 

I have told you before, the God-force holds to- 
gether every thing on the earth-plane — animates it. 
Take a humble thing — a cabbage, for instance. I 
say it's the God-force (or Life-force, if you prefer 
to call it that) in that cabbage that keeps it alive. 
When that force is withdrawn it dies, disintegrates 
(some would-be wit will say, "What about the 
God-force when it's boiled ? " ) . The boiling process 
would eliminate some of the Life- force, and what 
remained would be changed or converted to a differ- 
ent form. Some people will say, " It's all nonsense ; 



SPHERES AND SOURCE OF ALL POWER 67 

the cabbage is composed of so many ounces of this, 
and so many drams of that." Quite right, it may 
be so; and it's only held there and manifested be- 
cause the God- or Life-force has projected, and is 
holding it there. Directly the Life-force is gone, 
one of the gases begins to get less, and the cabbage 
decays and gets mouldy; then another material is 
forced out, for it is only the Life-force which is 
keeping and holding them together. I'll give you 
a crude illustration. Suppose you want to make a 
lump of plaster. You get the dry powder and bind 
it together with some water. The God- or Life- 
force is to all atomic matter what the water is to 
dry matter — it consolidates it. 

The whole Universe is full of revolving atoms, 
but unless they are gathered and solidified in a mass 
you would not see them. Take a handful of earth. 
Chemists, by employing certain gases, can blow 
that earth which is visible (and the gases employed 
may not be) into absolute invisibility. Earth is 
only atoms gathered into solid form; if you can 
scatter them sufficiently they go out into the Uni- 
verse again. They would go back into space from 
whence they came. Now, for a " twister," you 
might say, " Could one distinguish by any means 
that these are atoms of dust or of earth? " They 



68 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

are so minute that though they would be dust, it 
would be ridiculous to call them that; it would 
sound an exaggerated term, as if you called a tiny 
grain of soil a " piece of earth." These atoms are 
not noticed in space. 

It seems to me the planets are like parts of a tree, 
a fruit tree, and as if at the end of the branches 
things grow — fruit, or leaves, or flowers : the mani- 
festation of life to the onlooker is at the tips or 
terminations of the branches. The life or sap 
comes, doesn't it? from the trunk; but to the eye 
that is hidden. Take a cluster at the end of a branch 
to be our earth-plane. Just as the Life- force oozes 
up the trunk and along the branch, feeding the 
cluster till it grows, and grows, and grows, so does 
the Life-force stretch out an arm, so to speak, to 
one place in the Universe, and gathers atoms to- 
gether by the food and power it is pouring forth 
into that particular place and holding a cluster 
or a world together. It's a branch of God, 
with its manifestations of life at the tip of the 
branch. 

The tree is the Universe, the God-force is the 
sap which supplies the life, the planets are the 
clusters of fruit. 

Everything in existence is created and kept going 



SPHERES AND SOURCE OF ALL POWER 69 

by the Life- force; it is Life-force manifested in 
different ways. 

Whenever there is disease it means a little of the 
Life-force has gone from whatever part of you is 
diseased. When the Life-force is abruptly with- 
drawn from one particular limb the manifestation 
of disease is more noticeable than if the Life-force 
was simply withdrawn a little from every part of 
the body. 

The other planets have their own spirit-spheres 
round them. All in between and around every planet 
is the God- force; if you eventually went beyond the 
seventh sphere you would get into space and become 
part of the Infinite. You would then have no defined 
or finite form, for you would no longer be finite; 
you would then be only a consciousness. 

As in the physical you were conscious of the 
physical more than of any other state, so if you 
progressed and became part of the Infinite you 
would then become conscious of God and God 
only. 

You would not want to express or impose your 
little personality on others any more ; you would be 
content to be of God and of the great Infinite; that 
would be to be divine. 

Whatever state you are in, you are conscious in 



70 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

that state. On the earth you are conscious of the 
physical state, you wonder why you can't be more 
conscious of the astral ; in the spiritual you are 
conscious of the spiritual state; in the Infinite you 
are conscious only of God. 

I might tell you, no one we have ever known or 
heard of has ever stepped off into the Infinite. It 
will probably be a few million years before we shall 
want to go into the Infinite; it means the submerg- 
ing of the personality. All personal desire must 
be dead; we have to learn to wish to be of and 
as God. That's where the old idea of sacrifice 
comes; it's the giving up of some personal de- 
sire. . . . 

I always start off meaning to be matter of fact 
and scientific, and find myself slipping back to the 
great spiritual truths to which science is only the 
stepping-stone. 

I understand why spirits don't return and give 
more about the " make-up "of the spirit-world in 
a scientific way. There is so much that is so difficult 
to put into words at all, especially to have to im- 
print on another person (who is still in the limita- 
tion of the physical body — the medium) that which 
to us is a great shining light — the truth. We feel it, 
we move in it, we breathe it; but it's too great and 



SPHERES AND SOURCE OF ALL POWER 71 

vast a thing to explain in an hour or so, for no 
sooner do I start to explain one phase, than I find 
it leads me to have to explain another, and then 
another, and so on. We are nearer the Infinite than 
you are, and are therefore more naturally conscious 
of the power of the Infinite, and do not require to 
have it manifested in detail or in finite form to the 
same extent as you do. People on the earth-plane 
clamor for materialization; they are not conscious 
of those passed over unless they can see them in 
some form. 

We here do not often " see " Christ, but we can 
feel and are conscious of Him all the time; but if 
you ask me how I know I can't tell you. 

Ether is one of the manifestations of the " Life- 
force " it is difficult for me to explain; it spreads 
through it like moisture in the air. Ether is not a 
" power " like electricity, which we make from the 
embryo. Ether is not a force in that way at all. 
It's a state or condition that pervades the Universe, 
changing in degree or character as you get farther 
from the earth-plane. 

Interpenetrating everything on Earth, all the 
Spheres, all the Universe, all Space, is a tremendous 
power which is God, or what (to simplify it) we 



72 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

call God-force. By this God-force all things live. 
Its withdrawing means death. 

.G od-force. 




ro <*.force 



PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS 

We on earth with finite minds often visualize or 
think of God in a finite shape or form, as a man, be- 
cause to us that is the highest experience of life 
manifest. You can imagine that is limiting God. 
We are apt to do this with all things beyond our 
physical sphere. 

I told you we have atmosphere here. Just as we 
visualize God, and yet we know He is more than we 
can visualize, so much finer and greater, so is the 
atmosphere of the spirit-sphere to the atmosphere of 
the earth-plane ; you cannot visualize it with a finite 
mind. 

God is not known to science, because science can't 
measure or classify Him. But that does not show 
there is no God. It is the same with many things in 
the spirit-world. 

Any time within the next thousand years the 
" lighter and more refined " kind of hydrogen I told 
you about may be known to science, but it will not 
be known by any name we have given it here ; it will 
be named and classified by man when he discovers 

73 



74 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

it. I called it a " kind of hydrogen " because that is, 
it seems to me, the nearest approach to it on the 
earth-plane, and I must call it something that will 
present an idea to your mind that you can " grasp." 
It is a definite thing. 

We don't name the particles or items of the great 
universal force or power that permeates and is the 
being of everything. It is only when it filters 
through to the earth-plane that you divide it and dis- 
cover different parts and name them. 

I know these things definitely; they are not my 
ideas, or " impressions," for I am taught them by 
teachers and guides from the higher spheres. A 
great many others here have been taught these 
things too, but they do not get the opportunity to 
get them through to friends on earth. 

Of course, not every one who comes over here 
learns these things, as some are more interested and 
pass their time in other ways. 

Suppose a spirit here, a few hundred years ago, 
had tried to explain " electricity " or " radium " to 
a medium on earth, how would he have done it? 
(I suppose incidentally the medium would have 
been burnt as a witch, or a wizard, and that would 
have settled the matter for the time being !) You can 
imagine he would have been unable to express his 



PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS 75 

ideas clearly. We are still in the same predicament. 

There are stages in man's development : the phy- 
sical, in which he feels and senses on the physical 
plane; the mental, which is the scientific; and the 
spiritual, which is above them both, because it's 
nearer God. There are no very easy stages from 
the physical to the spirit-world; you have to get 
right out of one, to be of, and in, the other. 

Man is a student in God's school, namely, the 
earth-plane, and has to find out these things by hard 
work and study. 

It is not necessary for us here to know how many 
" drams," or " ounces," of any substance make any 
other substance; it would not help us at all. You 
might say, " Yes, but it would help us ; we want to 
know." Your earth-plane is the school, and when 
the headmaster has set the student a problem in 
Euclid he does not supply the answer before the 
pupil has worked it out. 

We don't learn things here in terms that you 
understand; we learn spiritual things, which are 
necessary to us, for we are of the spirit-world, and 
to find out things in your world we have to work 
in your conditions. 

Communication with me is so easy to you, I don't 
think you realize the " great gulf " that divides us. 



MAN'S CONNECTION WITH GOD 

The peace of your heart, in spite of great anxiety, 
comes from the innate knowledge that, however 
bad things may seem sometimes, " God's in His 
heaven : all's right with the world." 

The mind of God is operating through the various 
spheres on to the earth-plane. It is almost as if a 
picture were thrown from a lantern first on to the 
seventh sphere; God projects his thoughts on to 
it, and those there get every thought, wish, desire, 
of God. It is as clear to them as if it were photo- 
graphed on the atmosphere round them, so wherever 
they turn they know what God wants them to do. 
These " pictures " or thoughts of God seem to be 
composed of millions of " rays " (even in your 
atmosphere there are " rays " of which you are not 
cognizant on earth). On the sixth sphere the pic- 
ture is like a copy of the seventh, not quite so sharp 
in outline or detail, and so on, slightly decreasing in 
clarity and sharpness from sphere to sphere, till it 
gets to the first sphere, where it is much fainter, be- 
cause so close to the earth-plane. On the earth- 
plane it is faint indeed; but there, man, who has 

76 



MAN'S CONNECTION WITH GOD 77 

great power if he chooses to use it, could reproduce 
that picture if he put himself in the right mental 
and spiritual condition to do so. It has to be re- 
developed by man's attitude towards it. That's 
what I mean by saying we can interpret God if we 
choose. Man is given the power to see God's ways 
and wishes if he will put aside his lower self for a 
little while. 

The guide who is teaching me said it is important 
for people to develop psychically as a step to the 
higher or spiritual side. Before people can become 
" psychic " properly they must develop physically 
and mentally too. 

You say, " Mediums are often uneducated." 
Yes; they do not satisfy in consequence, but by 
their mediumship they are a bit better than they 
would have been without it. Still, I am not saying 
what is possible, but what is best 

People must learn to control the physical, the 
lower, or what is called " animal " part of them, 
and not give way to temper, greed, sensuality, jeal- 
ousy, and so forth; they must cultivate the spirit, 
the higher or God part, the " higher self." 

Sometimes the spirit wants to operate through 
the body (this is psychic or spiritual development), 
and is prevented by people giving way to any of the 



78 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

passions we have mentioned. It shows they must 
work harder to get control of the physical. 

I have told you before, your spirit even now 
knows and can see everything; it is seeing me at 
present. Your spirit-mind is the subconscious 
mind; your spirit-mind can't put itself in touch with 
the physical mind, it cannot link up with your brain. 
It is unable to, because you can't concentrate on me ; 
your brain is concentrating on what you are doing, 
not on seeing me. 

Your conscious mind is operating through your 
brain. To be " developed " means you have gained 
such control over your body and brain that you are 
able to detach yourself from undesirable things and 
thoughts. It is this power a person sits to try and 
develop by quiet, concentration, and prayer. You 
see how necessary it is to get complete control, so 
as to command the nature of the thoughts, to be 
able to lift the " lower self " to meet the higher. 

You could not do it always, of course, for you 
have to use the physical brain for material things, 
and to protect the physical body from enemies. For 
instance, if you saw a man coming for you to hit 
you with a brick, it would be no use to stop to think 
beautiful thoughts; you would have to do some- 
thing, and pretty quickly! 



MAN'S CONNECTION WITH GOD 79 

By a few moments' conscious practice every day, 
people can raise themselves so as to learn to " link 
on " or connect their minds and spirits, the lower 
and higher selves. The more and the oftener they 
do it the easier it becomes, so that in a little time 
there is a kind of semi-consciousness of that beauti- 
ful state helping them always. 

The power you get by this " linking on " to the 
higher self has a great effect, not only on your own 
physical or lower self but on other people's too; 
that shows that if the majority could believe and 
practise this, there would be no such thing as war 
or enmity on the earth-plane. It creates almost a 
tangible state or feeling. 

It is the power given by the continual drawing 
down into the physical organism of the bit of the 
Infinite that is in themselves, and because it is In- 
finite it has infinite power, much greater than phy- 
sical power; it is personality or temperament. 

God is an impersonal personality. He is a per- 
sonality of good, the personification of it, but im- 
personally good. " Why call Him personal at all ? " 
I call God that because He sends out certain forces 
or power, but He expects them to return (as, for 
instance, all He sends to inhabit physical bodies). 
Suppose we think of people as little ships sent out 



80 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

on the sea of life by God from His Harbor. His 
thought goes to each one, " May you return to 
Me," and the little ship goes out. 

When it has been out for some years it may make 
for other ports, evil ports, and stay away till it 
becomes battered and its white sails get grimy ; and 
then perhaps it says, " I won't go any more to any 
chance harbor, but will try and steer for my home 
port." Every ship launched from His Harbor 
God hopes will return. There is a sort of feeble 
interpretation of God's thought in the saying, " We 
shall go hence in God's good time." 

If the ships stayed in sight of it, they could easily 
return, but they get independent and think they will 
do better for themselves by going afar off ; and the 
farther they go the more thoroughly they forget 
the Harbor from which they started. 

Again, to speak of the God-force and try to ex- 
plain more about it. It's a mind that permeates 
everything. Next to being a mind it's an organism 
of forces — all the forces or energy or power ever 
known or to be known. God's mind controls every- 
thing — all the forces in the Universe. 



MAN'S BEGINNING 

I will try and explain as clearly as I can about 
man from his " beginning," and I am going to tell 
you the truth as far as I know and can express it, 
but I leave it to you to put only what you think 
suitable in the book, for I tell you everything, know- 
ing there is nothing that God has made nor any 
operation of His laws we need be ashamed of; 
and you understand and realize this also, but there 
are people who do not see things as we do, and 
might be "shocked!" My feeling is of awe and 
reverence now I have learned how really " fearfully 
and wonderfully " we are made, and I marvel all 
the more at the greatness of God. 

The physical of us is created on the earth-plane. 
The mental is born of the union of the spirit and 
the body of each one of us, because, till the spirit 
enters and controls the body, there is no life in it. 
The baby's spirit is not contained inside its body 
in its pre-natal condition, but is connected with it 
by the silver cord (exactly as any other person's 
body and soul are when the latter is operating inde- 
pendently, as it does often when the body sleeps or 



82 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

is under an anaesthetic), and remains outside in its 
mother's aura. When any woman is going to be 
a mother, the orange life-giving ray is attracted to 
her. It is in the earth-atmosphere, always ready to 
be diverted. Directly this ray is connected with 
the mother's organism, from God starts a little 
atom, or brilliant drop, trickling down the " ray." 
(I am speaking, please understand, of a new soul, 
not a reincarnated one.) It is like a drop of quick- 
silver. As it starts, it divides into two, like quick- 
silver can; so whenever there is one new soul born 
there is always its counterpart. 

The drop does not start from any one particular 
spot, or place, or part of God, and it leaves some- 
thing there — a trail, as it were — which remains 
linked up still in the God-element and still connected 
to the little drop, like a very long, slender twig 
connecting a leaf to a branch — connected always, 
however low a man may fall, for severing it would 
mean annihilation. This is a subtle point. The 
place from which you start, and to which you re- 
main connected, is your particular "bit of God;" 
so one need not think of oneself as lost in God, but 
as having one's own little part in Him that belongs 
to one alone. 

As I told you, the drop just as it starts divides 



MAN'S BEGINNING 83 

into two. One part goes to one mother, and one 
to another. (Remember, we are only speaking of 
new souls now.) One is always male, and the 
other female. As the drop travels slowly to earth 
it gets larger and larger, and it begins to shape out 
and take more space. By the time it reaches the 
mother's aura it is almost the size and shape of a 
tiny, weeny baby, and so remains with the mother 
till the time of birth. If this is premature, the 
spirit is jerked or drawn rather abruptly into it, and 
so does not get control of the little body as well 
as if it had had the proper time to do it. This 
partly accounts for the high death-rate under these 
circumstances. It's not only physical reasons, but 
because the Life-force has not a strong hold of the 
body. As the child is born, the spirit goes into 
it. The spirit, because it is of God, has a conscious- 
ness of its own, but not conscious personality, that 
has to be developed. It will be developed by the 
spirit operating through the body. Therefore, by 
unison of soul and body, we have mental growth 
and growth of personality. 

God does not work separately for each individual. 
He does not say, for instance, " That nice little 
woman, Mrs. Smith, loves children and longs to 
have one; I will direct a life 'ray' to her." No, 



84 CLAUDES BOOK 

the world is full of this " Life-force," or these rays, 
and they automatically act in suitable environments. 
God works automatically always through the 
regular operation of His laws. I will give you a 
very simple everyday illustration; let us say the 
" Postmaster General/ ' He is responsible for the 
general direction of the Post Office, but he does 
not do the detail work, like sorting letters, and de- 
livering them, but he has certain rules for the same. 
Well, God is the " Postmaster General " of the 
Universe. 



THE MADONNA AND A LITTLE EARTH- 
MOTHER 



Yes, I saw all the lovely mass of blue and white 
of the flowers in the garden, Mummy, but I did 
not try to impress you with thoughts of the Ma- 
donna; rather I seemed to catch your thoughts of 
her. The colors suggested that train of ideas, be- 
cause they are associated with her especially. 

Paul says he considers her the most beautiful 
spirit in the spirit-world, and I don't think he is 
far wrong. 

She is so kind and tender to all the young men 
who have come over in the war, always ready to 
talk to and take an interest in them, and when she 
looks at you, you feel she is not only thinking of 
you but of your mother. 

She is very beautiful, but not with the beauty of 
a woman on earth. You would not remark any- 
thing especial in detail about her, or say, " Oh, 
what lovely hair ! " or, " What an exquisite com- 
plexion ! " 

She is the ideal Mother-woman, and has all the 
beautiful expression of all the most tender mothers 

85 



86 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

of the world — pity, love, and holiness. She is in- 
deed " the Mother of Compassion." 

There is no feeling of fear or even of awe in 
connection with her, but you feel you can go and 
talk to her and be comforted if you feel lonely. 

Talking of mothers, I must tell you of a little 
earth-mother I have been trying to help lately. She 
came over quite unexpectedly after her baby's birth, 
and her grief and disappointment were very great 
when she woke to life here and found she had left 
the earth-plane, her young husband, and the baby. 

Her relatives over here are all elderly people, and 
she refused to be comforted by them. She said 
they were old, and it was natural they should be 
content, while she was young, and resented having 
her earth-life cut abruptly short just as it was so 
full of new and wonderful interests. They hap- 
pened to know me, and asked me to see and try 
to comfort her, for I am about her age, loved my 
earth-life equally, and yet have found life here so 
full of happiness. 

I went to her, sat down beside her and took her 
hand, and felt full of sympathy and understanding. 
(I could not help thinking how on earth I should 
have enjoyed an innocent flirtation with a pretty 
girl like this, and should have looked at her 



MADONNA AND EARTH-MOTHER 87 

with a world of " sloppiness " in my eyes, but- here 
I have quite a different feeling. I might have been 
her grandmother, one feels so impersonal.) She 
talked to me of her hopes and fears, and gave me 
details of the pain-racked body she had left on 
earth, which would have been quite embarrassing 
there, but here one is not ashamed of natural things. 
I explained to her as far as I could the psychic 
side of physical things, and tried to show her that 
though she could not tend her baby's little mortal 
body any more, — some other woman would have 
to do that, — she could keep watch over its spirit, 
and try and impress it with right and beautiful 
things, and be in very truth its guardian angel. 

She is beginning to understand and to become 
more reconciled, and I have helped several others 
since in similar circumstances. Some of them will 
probably help to look after the babies here. 

I often go to the colony where the " Red In- 
dians " live, for I have several friends among them, 
and I love their jolly little brown babies, and their 
horses too! 

Yes, people here live in " sets " or " colonies/' 
because those of like interests and nationalities 
gravitate naturally to each other, and to their own 
people. Otherwise, you can imagine it would not 



88 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

be very happy if you found yourself mixed up with 
people of every nationality, with dissimilar tastes 
and experiences, and with nothing in common be- 
tween you, for the fact of dying does not change 
you in any way. 



THE AURA 

The aura looks like a kind of "halo" (I have 
no doubt the painters of old, inspired for their 
task, may have seen or " sensed " the halo round 
the head of Christ, for of course it would have been 
very definite) that surrounds and outlines not only 
the head but the whole body of every living 
person. 

The aura, properly speaking, is an emanation 
from a body to which spirit is still allied; it inter- 
penetrates the surface of the body, it is a dissem- 
ination of the spirit over the body. 

We talk of the spirit as being in a. body, but in 
speaking of it are hard put to locate it. 

The aura is of various sizes and colors and parti- 
colors, and is always in movement, and changes in 
the same person at different times, for it is affected 
by emotion, character, and health. 

Intellect and intelligence determine the shape, for 
there is a fine head aura round any one who is well 
developed mentally. 

Spirits can tell by looking at the aura if a person 
is psychic; that is how they know a medium, and 

89 



90 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

come to them when they want to communicate with 
people on earth. 

I think the aura goes to make up the spirit-body, 
for when the physical body dies there is no aura. 
In dying, the aura gets gradually less and is drawn 
inward and upward. I have noticed many times 
(for I have seen many men die on the battlefield) 
that at the same rate at which the aura absorbs into 
the body the spirit begins coming out of the head. 

I think also the fact that it is possible to put 
all the aura on one side of the body under certain 
circumstances, shows it is soul. If it were only 
connected with the physical it would only disappear 
as the body grew cold at death. 

The soul, too, when out of the body looks like 
the aura, which does not totally disappear till the 
spirit and body are severed. 

At a materializing seance you can see the same 
substance (as the aura) coming from the body of 
the medium, meanwhile the aura greatly reduces. 

The physical " door " of the spirit, which it uses 
to enter and leave the body while it sleeps, is below 
the ribs in front, pretty nearly the centre of the 
body; at death, when it leaves for good, it comes 
out of the head. 

When the spirit is going to travel, the aura ap- 



THE AURA 91 

parently sinks into the body en masse, and a strong 
column of " spirit-matter " comes from the door I 
have just spoken of. It " builds up " or shapes into 
the spirit-body, and is connected with the physical 
one by a cord. In the case of a spiritually and 
mentally developed person the spirit can travel a 
long way, for the cord would be more pliable and 
elastic than in the case of anyone who was not de- 
veloped in these respects. 

Though you don't know it, it is through a per- 
son's aura you " sense " them. It is a sure indica- 
tion of character, and the colors which indicate 
characteristics are the same as I mentioned before 
in another connection: blue and violet (certain 
shades) for spirituality, yellow and orange intel- 
lectuality, pink indicates an affectionate nature, an 
apple-green a well-balanced mentality. 

The undesirable colors are certain shades of 
grey and brown, murky reds, and greens, which 
indicate sensuality, jealousy, and other unpleasant 
traits. 

Of course there are tremendous varieties in 
" auras " (they are naturally as varied as the people 
in the world), in shades of color, in combinations 
of colors, shapes, and sizes; also in some people 
they are clear and well defined, while in others they 



92 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

are uneven, almost " sagging," or " lumpy-looking/ * 
or misty. 

When any organ of the physical body is out of 
order or diseased, the aura in that spot dwindles 
for the time being; for this reason a clairvoyant 
can sometimes locate illness. 



ASTRALS AND THOUGHT-FORMS 

You want to know the difference between " Ast- 
rals " and "Thought-Forms?" They are quite 
different and by no means interchangeable terms, 
though people often speak as if they were, for the 
latter is only a " picture " and not a " spirit " at 
all. 

There are two kinds of " Astrals " (so called 
because they are functioning on the " Astral " 
plane). First, there are the spirits existing there 
in their Astral bodies, which are made out of actual 
atoms. The Astral, though fine in comparison 
with the physical body, is still coarse (for it is 
only undeveloped people who are not spiritually 
evolved who live on that sphere). There is a great 
difference between it and the bodies of those on the 
third sphere. 

There is no " death " after you leave earth, but 
this further difference in degree makes people think 
sometimes one has to undergo that ordeal again on 
going higher through the different planes. This 
is not so, though a great change certainly does take 
place in the "astral body;" the chemical condition 

93 



94 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

alters, it becomes refined, but it is no greater than 
that which takes place in your earth-body continu- 
ally, all the cells of which change and renew several 
times in the course of your life there, though you 
are not conscious of it in either case. 

When a man in the Astral changes mentally, his 
body changes too in sympathy with his development, 
and in corresponding degree, but more quickly than 
with you. 

If a man longs to progress very fast, and makes 
up his mind and concentrates on it, he can change 
in a very short time; but if he makes no special 
effort, and progresses slowly mentally, his body 
changes slowly too. This gradual refinement con- 
tinues through the spheres ; the change comes from 
within. 

The second kind of Astral is a spirit connected 
with a physical body, and functioning temporarily 
only on the Astral plane, while its earth-body 
sleeps or is unconscious. It looks much the same 
as the other, but its body is actually different, for 
it has an astral " husk " only, much on the same 
principle as the temporary body made for a mater- 
ializing spirit at a seance, and like that composed 
of astral atoms consolidated. 

These astral atoms collect round the aura of a 



ASTRALS AND THOUGHT-FORMS 95 

developed man, and on his soul emerging (as I 
have already described to you) from the centre of 
his body, these atoms close round his spirit and 
form a " husk " or covering to protect it in its 
travels. 

He could not function in his real " astral " body, 
for that is not complete; it is not complete for a 
curious reason. It is this : that a certain amount of 
the material that makes his astral body is not avail- 
able while he is connected with his physical body, 
for it goes to make the vital cord or connection be- 
tween his travelling spirit and his stationary body, 
which is only severed at death (for the severing 
means death). 

After this has occurred, of course, no cord being 
then required, this material is available for his 
astral body, and so he no longer requires to borrow 
astral atoms to protect himself; his spirit is suf- 
ficiently clothed, being complete. 

As I am not in the Astral I find it difficult to tell 
if a person is in their permanent astral body or not. 

This accounts too for the difficulty a clairvoyant 
sometimes has in being able to say if a person is in 
or out of their physical body permanently. They 
too are, it must be remembered, seeing in other 
conditions than their normal. Sight varies enough 



96 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

even on the earth-plane; no two men there see ex- 
actly alike. 

If you took a collection of people to a hilltop and 
asked them to describe the view without artificial 
aid, they would all see in different degrees: some 
only things near, others only things distant, some 
as it were through a haze, and others clearly. This 
is why normal clairvoyance is often incorrect — 
things are difficult to see in the right perspective; 
and it varies too according to the bias of the me- 
dium's brain on which it is registered by the sight. 

A " Thought-Form " is a picture, a thought- 
photograph, projected through the atmosphere by 
some one, but the recipient would have to mentally 
"develop" it, as it were, in order to see it; by 
that I mean they would have to be thinking of the 
sender at the right moment, and in the right way. 
Space is nothing, for it takes no longer to think 
four or five hundred miles than into the next room. 
So if you are in the right mental condition you can 
see a thought-form ; it's only a picture in the atmos- 
phere. 

This explains certain things ; for instance, visions 
of Christ to the dying. Hundreds on the battle- 
fields may see Him individually and spontaneously. 
If He is projecting His thought to all who are lying 



ASTRALS AND THOUGHT-FORMS 97 

there, all who are attuned in mind can and may 
be able to see Him. Just as when a ship at sea 
sends out a wireless message or a call for help, it 
is not confined to one receiver, but is open to all 
ships and receiving stations which are suitably at- 
tuned. So all who are suitably attuned and har- 
monized can receive thought pictures, impressions, 
and inspiration. This explains also how various 
people in widely separated places may simulta- 
neously be " inspired " by one individual. " In- 
spired " I said, not " controlled " remember, Mum; 
that is a very different matter (people should al- 
ways use common sense in judging what they are 
told). Personally, I don't believe spirits from 
the higher spheres ever " control " people on earth. 
It is hard enough for us who are only on the third 
sphere to get back into the old conditions, for those 
it would be exceedingly difficult and a deliberate 
waste; it would be like engaging a tutor of the 
highest scholastic attainments to teach an infant its 
ABC! 

Now as regards a so-called " ghost " haunting 
a particular spot. If it is a persistent haunt that 
has continued for many years, even for centuries, 
it is almost certainly a thought-form and not a 
spirit; for it is very unlikely that any spirit would 



98 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

be so unfriended as to be permitted to go on in this 
aimless and unhappy manner indefinitely, for as 
soon as any one desires help here it is forthcoming. 

What happens is this. Certain events (probably 
tragic), which are felt very intensely by the parti- 
cipators at the time, leave a very clear-cut and well- * 
defined picture in the atmosphere, and at first for 
a short time the actors in the scene may return in 
spirit to the spot, and by thinking over what hap- 
pened revivify and intensify that thought picture. 

Ordinary people then come to that place knowing 
its history, and some may see the " ghost," and they 
see it because they are psychic and unconsciously 
psychometrize the atmosphere, and so mentally de- 
velop the picture that is there, and so constantly 
renew the image, which thus becomes almost per- 
manent. Yes, I know it does seem difficult to re- 
alize, but it also applies to " feeling " as well as 
"seeing" past conditions; thus a medium feels 
pain and discomfort when describing the illness of 
any one. The medium is psychometrizing the con- 
dition connected with the spirit while it was a 
body, and not the spirit itself. 

I say this because I have been told and have 
noticed myself that spirits are surprised on return- 
ing to earth to hear themselves described with symp- 



ASTRALS AND THOUGHT-FORMS 99 

toms of disease they have almost forgotten they ever 
suffered. For instance, your father, who " died " 
over thirty-five years ago, here is in perfect health, 
yet whenever he returns to earth the mediums de- 
scribe him as having a cough, and discomfort in 
his chest; that was true when he passed over (he 
died of pneumonia), but of course is totally unlike 
his present condition. 

Another man I know, who had some very pain- 
ful disease which affected one leg, tells me he gets 
quite angry when he hears it described now, as he 
no longer feels it at all even when he returns to 
earth-conditions, and yet the mediums describe it 
most accurately, and one might imagine he was 
still in suffering instead of in perfect health ! 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE, THOUGHT, AND 
THOUGHTS 



It is curious that modern investigations have rec- 
onciled Religion and Science, for there was a time 
when religious teachers feared the revelations of 
scientists ; but as a matter of fact these taught better 
than they knew, for further knowledge has strength- 
ened faith and not undermined it. Truth will al- 
ways bear the light. 

Many in the past who disbelieved Bible state- 
ments now realize it was possible for these seem- 
ing " miracles " to have really happened. 

They know that the appearance of Christ after 
His resurrection, in a locked and barred upper room, 
was a possible fact, for He was in His " Spirit- 
body," and thousands of men revisit the earth in 
this way daily now, though only those who are 
psychically developed can see them. 

It is possible for " spirit-bodies " to go through 
apparently solid substances, just as sunlight goes 
through glass, or heat through metal, for as a 
matter of fact no atoms of matter are actually 
touching, however solid they may appear to be. 

IOO 



RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND THOUGHTS 101 

Man is a triune being, and consists of body, 
soul, and spirit, though in the world we live as 
if we consisted of a material body only (with 
a small spirit tucked away somewhere as a kind of 
after-thought). Through his ill-balanced develop- 
ment man does not half realize his own possi- 
bilities. 

I want to impress upon you, apropos of this, the 
enormous importance of thought; if men only re- 
alized and cultivated their powers in this direction 
they might do wonderful things. 

Thoughts should be guarded as carefully as 
deeds, for thought is actually creative and im- 
presses an image on the surrounding atmosphere 
of which a permanent record remains. Some men 
are haunted when they come over here by what they 
have themselves unwittingly created. 

Of course on earth thought is creative also, for 
everything has there to be planned or arranged in 
some one's mind before it is made by hands or 
machinery. 

In the spirit-world, too, we can speak by thought, 
by telepathy; that is how we overcome the diffi- 
culty of different languages. This does not mean 
that I have no privacy of thought, and that my mind 
is open for all to read. I have to project a thought 



102 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

when I want to communicate it, just as all a hyp- 
notist's thoughts are not conveyed to his patient, 
but only those which he directly impresses. If you 
could get people " attuned " properly, they could 
even think music at each other! 

All wrong thought goes to build up and 
strengthen the power of evil (called by men the 
devil). In the beginning, I am told, it was almost 
negative; man increased it himself by inflicting 
pain, by cruelty, by lust and envy. 

There is great spiritual and mental " unrest " 
among men now and has been for some time past, 
however undefined, obscure, and misunderstood, be- 
cause man is evolving and there is an unconscious 
struggle between the spiritual and animal in him. 
Chaos and disturbance are the result. 

As to the people whose " faith " you say is 
" shaken " by the war, all I can say is, it's not much 
of a faith! They are trying to limit God again; 
He does not work for one country, but for the good 
of all mankind, and each nation will learn what it 
requires for its future development. It would be 
as sensible for a doctor to treat one symptom of 
disease in the body only, instead of strengthening 
and cleansing the whole of it. The systems of the 
world are being purified. In the past we have put 



RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND THOUGHTS 103 

aside or trifled with things that now must be faced 
in earnest. 

The earth-plane is God's garden, and it was a 
beautiful garden; what is left of God in it is still 
beautiful, but it is now full of weeds of evil, disease, 
poverty, and selfishness. 

The gardeners are beginning to realize that fur- 
ther trimming is of no use, and these things must 
be uprooted utterly. In the past so many enjoyed 
the sunshine and fruit and flowers, and neglected 
the weeds, which were brushed aside and hidden 
as unlovely and troublesome things; they have now 
become rampant, and only drastic measures are 
any use. 

I know sometimes things look depressing, but 
I solemnly promise you there is a silver lining to 
this dark cloud. Men in the old days worked for 
individual progress; in future the ideal will be to 
work for others, for the good of the whole and the 
improvement of the community. 

I am told the sacrifices of this war have not been 
in vain ; that a purified England will result. There 
will be a spiritual revolution ; people will try to face 
truth, to drop some of the shams that are now used 
to veil it. Perhaps present events do seem to you 
like a " dark tunnel," but I see the sum shining at 



104 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

the end of it, and I know there has never been a 
crisis in the world's history which has held so much 
certainty of ultimate good arising out of it. 

Nations and peoples, like individuals, sooner or 
later reap what they themselves have sown of good 
and evil; and knowing this, one realizes that no life, 
nor the life of any nation, is a succession of dis- 
connected events. There is a sequence running 
through them all. They fit into each other like the 
pieces of a puzzle, though one only sees it clearly 
as a whole when life on earth is over and the last 
piece has fitted into its place. 



II.— CLAUDE'S LETTERS 

[A Letter written when Claude was in the ranks.] 

August 1914 
My darling Mother, — Hope you arrived home 
safely last night. On my way back after leaving 
you I overtook a lance-corporal in the Engineers 
coming in my direction, so we walked along to- 
gether. We became quite " pals." He took me into 
his tent, one of those situated below the gymnasium, 
and showed me several dodges in using the rifle. 
After that we sat and yarned till just before ten, 
when I turned in. 

The daring " Sergeant-saucers " were not in good 
form last night; the threat of having up the offend- 
ers before the Major appears to have had the de- 
sired effect. The corporal with whom I was yarn- 
ing had three brothers in the Zulu and Boer Wars, 
so that his stories were extremely interesting. 

Parade this morning commenced at 6.15 and 
breakfast at 7.30. At the 9 o'clock parade about 
a dozen of us were picked out, including myself 

105 



106 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

and L , to form what might be termed a 

" super-recruit " squad, as we are more advanced 
than the others. We are to be rushed on and 
drafted to our companies this week, if possible. 

The selected few were drilled by one Sergeant 
K , the humorous character with the crisp re- 
partee. During the 10 to n interval, L and 

I sat in the shade of the canteen with Sergeants 

K and B and another sergeant, whose 

lack of military knowledge is only surpassed by 
the superabundance of flesh round his " Plimsoll 
line n ! 

By dint of a half -pint of beer all round and a 
winning smile, I soon got on excellent terms with 
the lot, and was rewarded with some shockingly 
humorous anecdotes from Sergeant K . 

In the Zulu campaign his experiences were posi- 
tively side-splitting, especially as he sees the funny 
side of everything. 

The story of one of his friends, who was shot 
on his bare back by a Zulu whose blunderbuss was 
loaded with chopped-up telephone wires, and leaped 
into the trenches with a yell, with his back bristling 
with copper spikes, takes a lot of beating. The 
cream of the joke was that the miserable victim 
had to spend the rest of his military career in ex- 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 107 

plaining to wilfully incredulous but secretly de- 
lighted inquirers how he came to be shot in the 
back if he wasn't running away. 

Needless to say, the more indignantly he denied 
the soft impeachment the more sceptical his tor- 
mentors became! 

Scarcely less funny are his experiences when 
serving with the British Expedition to quell the 
riots in Crete. 

I nearly put my foot in it to-day. After 12 
o'clock I went to read the paper on the hill over- 
looking the sea near the Fort entrance, and fell 

asleep. L left me to go to dinner; I slumbered 

peacefully on. Our next parade was at 2, but at 
five minutes past I was still dreaming, until the 

breathless L dashed up to say that drill had 

started ten minutes before! However, Sergeant 
K , seeing us coming in the dim distance, re- 
lapsed into a spasm of deep thought, with his back 
to the squad, and consequently pretended not to 
notice our arrival. But / nearly had a " spasm " 
over it. I am going down to the " Ship " to-night 
and I shall be very glad to get some " grub," as 
I've had nothing for dinner but sleep, which isn't 
very filling. I have fallen on hard times: I have 
a cold in my right eye, a pain in my left arm, due 



io8 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

of course to the vaccination, and a bit of a headache, 
due I expect to the same cause. 

However, I am getting used to the floor of the 
" Jimmy-Nasum," as I heard it called this morn- 
ing. I will write again soon. — Your loving son, 

Claude 

[The following Letters were written from the 

Front after Claude joined the Royal Flying 

Corps.] 

France 

My darling Mother, — Thank you so much for 
your letters and the cakes. I believe, as a matter 
of fact, that a postal transport was lost, stolen, or 
strayed recently, as no one got any letters for a 
day or two. 

I had a two-hour trip yesterday on wireless work, 
over Ypres as usual. But owing to a clear sky and 
an erratic course, " Archie " didn't risk straining 
his neck over us! 

After tea I had one of the most miraculous 
escapes on record in the Flying Corps. It hap- 
pened thuswise: — 

I was taking up an F.E., our largest fight- 
ing pusher biplane in the Service, for the first 
time. 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 109 

H being very anxious to accompany me 

" to save ballast," as he put it, came too. 

Everything went well getting off, and I was be- 
ginning to congratulate myself when the engine 
stopped without a second's warning. 

On reviewing the situation the prospects were 
hardly promising. We were 60 feet up, and over 
an impermeable square of fifty-foot trees, and too 
low to turn, not to mention it was a strange ma- 
chine ! 

Rather awkward, wasn't it? However, I kept 
straight on for the trees in front, gliding as flat 
as I dared, hoping to clear the top and reach a 
ploughed field beyond. Nothing doing! 

Note, Providence had ordained that two trees 
should be cut down, and those two left a gap the 
exact width of my machine, though it looked 
smaller. 

Trying to get over them I got too flat, and losing 
flying-speed stalled the machine. 

As an A.S.C. mechanic told me afterwards, she 
got through that gap with just a 2-inch clearance 
on both sides. 

No sooner had she passed, than down went her 
nose almost vertically for earth, and about 40 feet 
up!!! 



no CLAUDE'S BOOK 

There was nothing for it but to hold the stick 
hard back and wait for her to pick up enough speed 
to answer the elevator. 

Rather unpleasant that wait! Thirteen feet off 
the plough she started pulling up, and instead of 
striking the ground vertically, she struck it at 45 °. 

By all the laws of nature she ought to have 
turned over and deposited her engine through yours 
truly and H , and made a hole in the ground. 

But no; we weren't "for it" this time. She 
struck a bit sideways at 50 miles an hour and 45 ° 
down, spun round, smashed to smithereens, top 

to bottom. H and I got out without a scratch ! 

But, facing the gap in the trees, how, I dunno! 

The getting out, consisting of placing one foot 
straight on the ground, which in view of the fact 
that ordinarily the "Cock-pit" is 11 feet up and 
has to be reached by a step ladder, is no mean 
symptom of the condition of the machine. 

We both got out, shook hands spontaneously, 
and laughed. 

It really was rather funny. 

But our adventures were not at an end. Within 
three minutes of crashing, a rapidly increasing 
whistle changed to a moan and finished up with a 
bang ! 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS in 

On first thoughts, I thought we were being 
shelled, as the explosive pitched 300 yards off, 
though in view of our distance from the lines it 
was highly improbable. 

However, a more distinct and regular drone be- 
trayed a Hun machine, about 7000 feet up, and ap- 
parently vertically above. 

The advent of another whistle, precisely like the 
first, made the crowd that had collected disperse 
with considerably greater alacrity than one is ac- 
customed to see in Belgian peasantry. 

The second one was a darned good shot con- 
sidering his height, as it fell within 200 yards of 
us, and blew a hole in the ground. 

He then went on his way rejoicing, and gave 
Abeele another, though with what result I have not 
hitherto ascertained. 

I have secured half a dozen portions of his second 
shot at us, as mementoes of the occasion. 

The local damage was considerable; seven pota- 
toes were irretrievably damaged! One in parti- 
cular was riddled with shrapnel and quite inedible. 

So my first real crash has been a good one. I 
have taken a couple of " snaps" of it; I hope they 
will turn out satisfactory. 

I have also got the canvas off my Q.c. tail, with 



ii2 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

sundry patches, most of them acquired in our scrap 
over Lille. Think we shall have to start a museum 
after the war. 

By the way, it was lucky I did not fly over, as 
Captain C flew over last Friday, the day be- 
fore I came out, and spent half an hour in the 
Channel with a dud engine, and was salved by a 
destroyer. 

Rather nasty if there had been two of us on board 
the machine. 

Well, it's about time I did some work — n a.m. 
I must go and test my Q.c. if it has been finished. 

Good-by for the present. Tons of love to all. — 
Your loving son, Claude 

France 

My darling Mother, — Another " dud " day, 
but by no means a wasted one. 

After breakfast, four of us started off on foot 
for a trudge to the trenches, though we got a lift 
right up to Ypres. 

The town is in a most extraordinary state, just 
as though a stupendous earthquake had paid it a 
visit; and is so deserted that it is veritably a city 
of the dead. 

The remains of the far-famed Cloth Hall and 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 113 

Cathedral have still traces of their old beauty, with 
here and there traces of frescoes and carvings. 

The cemetery has been shelled beyond recogni- 
tion, and the gasometer is by no means gas-tight. 

We went southwards by the Lille gate and visited 

a battery dug-out near X , where we refreshed 

the inner man. 

Thence we entered the first communicating 
trench, quite half a mile long, and worked up into 
the reserve trenches towards " Sanctuary Wood " 
and " Maple Copse.'' 

Most extraordinary the way the trenches run, 
each with its name on a post at the ends. 

"Lover's Walk," "Bond Street," "Suicide 
Corner " were a few I noticed in passing. 

The ground around was a mass of shell-holes, 
graves, and fallen trees. 

The air was none too pure either, as the recent 
attacks have kept the men too busy to dispose of 
all the poor devils who were knocked out. 

In the wood itself, one can walk about in com- 
parative safety, though 70 or 80 per cent, of the 
trees have been lopped off at the base by passing 
shells. 

The German trench-mortars were pretty active 
and making lots of noise, whilst every now and 



ii 4 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

then, about seven or eight times a minute, one 
could hear the crack of a rifle, as one or other of 
our snipers spotted a target, and quite as frequently 
a " ziph," " ziph," as the Germans did the same, and 
the bullets came over the trench we were in. 

They make a noise almost like a sigh, but are not 
nearly so unpleasant to my mind as the shells one 
can hear coming for ten or fifteen seconds with a 
noise like a heavy goods train, finishing up with a 
crash that makes one jump like a shot rabbit. 
. Eventually we found ourselves in the front-line 
trenches and within twenty yards of the Germans. 

Looking through a periscope they only appeared 
about five, with stacks of barbed wire and men who 
had fallen in the last attack in between. 

Indeed, in some places, where a trench had been 
only partially taken or lost by one side or the other, 
they were actually in the same trench, with a dozen 
or so coils of barbed wire as a partition — five yards 
distance between their barricade and ours. 

Coming away they sniped at us, but with no 
success, and we got within twenty yards of one 
of our machines brought down last month, and 

within thirty of the remains of the one H 

strafed on one of his many duels. 

Three o'clock found us on our way back, and 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 115 

within an hour we were having tea in an Artillery 
dug-out. 

Thence we skirted Ypres, and by walking along 
the remains of the railway line struck the main 
road homeward bound. 

Walking along the line we were surprised to hear 
a hidden voice yelling at us to " clear out," which 
we didn't take long to do, as I spotted the muzzle of 
a 6-inch gun within 20 feet of us loaded and cocked 
and pointing our way, but it was so well hidden 
that we hadn't noticed it till the gunner yelled out. 

Anyway, it went off within thirty seconds with 
a pretty resounding bang ! 

That's one of the beauties of life out here, you 
never know what's going to happen next. 

In passing all that is left of Ypres Station we 
gave a peep in at the running-sheds. 

One of the only two engines inside was a rickety 
and prehistoric old pram, and the other had had its 
chimney taken off as clean as a whistle by the 
shell that had plonked a neat hole in the wall, and 
was too knocked about to ever be serviceable again. 

Fifty yards down the line was another loco, with 
a shell-hole plonk through the boiler, with tubes 
sticking out all over like a hedgehog. 

Another hundred yards and there were the two 



n6 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

largest shell-holes I've ever seen, and there are 
some sizey ones in Ypres! 

Two pits about 25 feet deep and the bottom full 
of water with a circumference of at least 30 feet! 

When one sees that the edges of the holes are 
about 10 feet apart and the " Jack Johnsons " can- 
not have been fired at a range of less than 15 miles, 
one cannot but respect the German Artillery. 

Besides, they were both beautifully placed in the 
middle of the station sidings, with rails lying about 
torn and twisted like so much cotton. 

The town walls show innumerable scars in every 
direction, and the whole presents a picture one can 
never forget. 

The trenches we had visited were at the very 
apex of the Ypres salient, surrounded by Teutons 
on three sides, though the Highlanders who were 
in them were as cheery as larks. 

A few hunks of shell accompanied me home as 
souvenirs. Time I knocked off now ; post orderly's 
just going. Love to all. — Your loving son, 

Claude 

My darling Mother, — Just a line to let you 
know that I am in excellent form, though very 
hard worked, having done eleven and a quarter 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 117 

hours in four days, which is rather stiff considering 
the heights vary from 6000 feet upward, and 
" Archie " has been increasingly active and accurate. 

However, I think things will cool off again by 
the end of next week, which is comforting. 

Moreover, the prospect of a week's leave is dis- 
tinctly cheering, and it may come in three, or four, 
or ten, or eleven days, or later, according to cir- 
cumstances. 

We are rather a sad little party just now, as 
" B " Flight Commander and an observer, both 
awfully good fellows, fell victims to " Archie " the 
day before yesterday. 

However, H promptly went up and " did 

in " one of their scouts in return, so things are al- 
most square again. 

The weather has cleared up beautifully, and 
shows symptoms of starting another summer. 

I saw England yesterday for the first time from 
here. 

The brilliant white cliffs lining a sea of the deep- 
est blue, whilst the entire world lay under an ocean 
of mist, tinged pink with the rising sun, was a sight 
that it is not easy to forget. 

One does see most wonderfully beautiful sights 
flying high at dawn. 



n8 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

The shadow of the machine follows one along 
the clouds below, surrounded by a white halo, 
which in turn is encircled by a complete little rain- 
bow. 

And just as one is beginning to be sentimental — 
" bang ! " goes an " Archie " with a yellow flame 
and a puff of smoke, and makes you jump like a 
jack-in-the-box and dodge like a squib, and one's 
mind returns to the job in hand with a jerk. 

Trying to take photographs yesterday I dived 
through a valley in the clouds down to 6000 feet, 
but before I got over the target off went four well- 
placed 4-inch high explosives, and I was back in 
the clouds before you could say snap. 

However, the Germans are nothing if not me- 
thodical, and they tried to pepper the entire cloud I 

Rather amusing. 

We have a new and swollen-headed youth here 
(who can't have been properly brought up) who is 
training as an observer, and who is very given to 
criticizing pilots and their flying. 

He was rash enough to tell me that he didn't 
think I had had long enough in the air to be safe, 
and other offensive remarks of a like nature. 

Well, having finished a " job of work," as wire- 
less duty is called, I brought him back to the aero- 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 119 

drome with the fixed determination to give him a 
lesson ; so I tail-slid him, and side-slipped, and nose- 
dived, and stalled, and pitched, and rolled. 

Towards the end of five minutes he looked round 
very sheepishly and said he'd be ill in a minute; 
naturally I sympathized deeply, and gave two colos- 
sal tosses! 

He was wrong, he didn't hold out for nearly a 
minute, and I must confess I was cruel enough to 
slow up the machine in order that he could hear 
me chuckling. 

I haven't heard him criticize my flying since. 

Alas for him, he had me as a pilot again to-day, 
and I brought him over the aerodrome at much the 
same height. 

However, as he had made so much fuss about 
the previous performance, I brought him down 
" sarcastically " — that is to say, so slowly that he 
might have been a rich and elderly relation. 

But all to no purpose; he had already been ill 
at the prospect of what he thought he'd have to go 
through. 

Dear, dear, it's a hard world, but it's a bilious 
air! 

Good-by for the present; fondest love to all. — 
Your loving son, Claude 



120 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

France 

My darling Mother, — It must seem quite an 
age since I last wrote to you. 

We have had quite a gay time for the last three 
days, though very little in the flying line. 

On Monday, the weather being pleasantly un- 
pleasant, we " Dunkirked" in the afternoon, lunched 
there and did some shopping, but returned almost 
immediately, as the roads were so bad that we 
didn't like to face them in the dark. 

Tuesday proved a very rough morning, but after 

tea four of us went into the little town of X , 

four miles from here, to a cinema. 

The show is run by the Sixth Corps, and en- 
tertains two to three hundred men every night. 

Fancy an army carrying a cinematograph with it ! 

Unfortunately, we got back too late for the post. 
Next morning the news leaked out that the King 
was going to inspect us. 

About 6000 infantry were paraded on the aero- 
drome, and a flagstaff erected in the centre. 

The Flying Corps were well represented. I had 
had instructions to fly up and around, to give the 
show a " finishing touch," but a darned thunder- 
storm came up and provided that instead! 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 121 

The King arrived at 10.30, and the men marched 
past in great style. 

Unfortunately the rain prevented the royal party, 
including the Prince of Wales, and accompanied 
by Sir John French, from coming round the sheds 
afterwards, though a number of the Staff, com- 
monly called " Tin-hats," had to be shown round. 

Two buttonholed me, and, there being no means 
of an honorable retreat, I did the " showman act w 
for half an hour. 

In the evening the entire flight, with two ex- 
ceptions, motored into X to see a " pierrot 

show " there, run by five officers and two Belgian 
girls, who are let off for the purpose of entertain- 
ing the men. 

Darned good show, too! Anything that makes 
one forget the war for a couple of hours is very 
welcome. 

I ran across a chap I knew at Eastbourne at " The 
Fancies," as they style themselves. 

I believe he and I used to have hotly contested 
competitions for the bottom seat in class. 

Honors were more or less even, if my memory 
serves me right. 

I told him to come over this way on the off-chance 
of getting a joy-ride. As a matter of fact, the 



122 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

"joy" part of the proceeding's is usttally one- 
sided — the pilot's side. 

More rain again this morning ; indeed, " an ideal 
dawn and very promising," as we remarked at 
breakfast. 

There are rumors, though as yet not officially 
confirmed, that the strength of the R.F.C. is being 
reduced in the winter to ten pilots per squadron, 
instead of the present strength of twelve. 

The only way it would seem to affect the remain- 
der would be that leave would come a week sooner 
each time, and very nice, too ! 

At the present rate of progress, another four 
weeks ought to see me home again. 

I had a very nice letter from Mrs. D and 

G yesterday, and of course one from you too. 

By the way, I forgot to mention that yesterday 

afternoon I had to do an aerial patrol over B , 

as the King was reviewing some troops there. 

Fearfully rough up, as we, H and I, spent 

most of our time dodging thunder storms, but in 
the absence of " Archie " the trip was distinctly 
pleasant. 

A perfect gale is in progress just now. The 
trees are shedding their leaves, while the rain is 
beating an infernal tattoo on the roof, which, being 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 123 

of canvas stretched on a wood frame, resounds like 
a drum. 

I have got an extensive stock of letters to polish 
off by to-night's post, so I'll shut down for the day. 
Love to all. 

[This is Claude's last letter. He wrote a few lines 
on the 8th to say he " would be home in a few 
days on leave," but he never came, for he went 
out on the morning of the nth November and 
did not return. He was reported " missing," 
and it was nearly a month before he was known 
to have been killed in mid-air that morning, 
fighting two German aeroplanes.] 

France, 
November 5, 191 5 
My darling Mother, — Success at last ! Had a 
real adventure, involving several minor ones in its 
train, and it was thuswise: — 

Yesterday being the first fine day, I had in- 
structions to go up in an F.E., with P as 

observer, to take some photographs over X : 

about the most unpleasant job going, as the numer- 
ous woods about there are absolutely bristling with 
" Archies " of no mean prowess, as I can testify, 
having had, perforce, to sample some of their 



124 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

wares on many a reconnaissance of late. It took us, 
roughly, an hour to get up to 9,000 feet, which time 

we spent between Y and X , climbing, 

climbing, and climbing still. The air was pretty 
full of machines, it being the first fine day for some 
considerable time. We saw no Huns, though we 
afterwards heard that there were three hanging 
about behind their lines, and worrying a number of 
our fellows doing photography. Twenty to twelve 

found us east of X , not far short of 10,000 feet 

up, and distinctly chilly. 

A biplane and a monoplane appeared east of us, 
the biplane leading, with ample evidence of being 
in a hurry, with the monoplane — which appeared 
to be one of our " Morane " type — overhauling it 
hands over fists. We were about 2500 feet above 
the buses, and when within about a mile I got a 
glimpse of the monoplane's top wing. Black crosses 
on a white base! Good enough! 

Down went my F.E.'s nose almost vertically, my 
observer standing on the wireless set, which in the 
normal flying position is straight up in front of 
the passenger seat, but in the present case was of 
course considerably more horizontal than the 
" floor." Two thousand feet we came down, while 
the air-speed indicator went up to 160 m.p.h. and 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 125 

then stuck — not having been designed for the pur- 
pose of exceeding recognized limits. I expected the 
F.E. to fold up under the strain any moment, but 
she stood it like a rock. 

By this time the other two machines were almost 
vertically below us. The Hun had caught up the 
Be.Qc, and was emptying his gun into it at 50 
yards' range. It subsequently transpired that just 
at this moment he had put three bullets in the ob- 
server's arm, and one through the main petrol tank, 
with the result that the precious fluid was pouring 
all over pilot, observer, and fusilage. 

I started pulling the F.E. out of her nose dive 
about 200 feet above the Hun, as too sudden a 
shock would inevitably have crumpled her up. The 
consequence was that we found ourselves above and 
behind the unfortunate Teuton, and within 20 yards 
of him. To my mind he never saw us until we 
opened fire. Thank the Lord, the machine-gun 
worked, for a change! Twenty rounds of lead 
were planted into the back of his neck, though 
apparently they did not hit him. He then turned 
his attention to us, turning left-handed and passing 
directly below us. This necessitated our getting on 
to a perpendicular bank, and doing a complete cir- 
cuit to see where he'd got to. The little beggar was 



126 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

describing circuits round us, while we did a sort of 
" inner circle," conducted, of course, with a per- 
pendicular bank; but owing to the fact that our 
speed was so great, and that we were doing complete 
turns in about twice the length of our machine, the 

centrifugal force was so great that P couldn't 

hold the machine-gun on its mounting. As it is 
hinged centrally, the heavier half being inwards, it 
swung down, and though the whole gun only weighs 
twenty-eight pounds he could not pull it up square. 

Things being at the moment at a distinctly unsatis- 
factory status, we weren't sorry to see the Hun 
head for home. After him we went, both diving 

lustily, while P (more familiarly known as 

" Pongo ") gave him the rest of the drum — another 
twenty-eight rounds. 

I was beginning to get a little anxious, as we were 
getting very low and expecting " Archie " to get 
us any minute — when we got him. 

A lucky shot found its billet, and the pilot was no 
more. 

The evolutions that machine described falling 
7000 feet with no man at the wheel were extra- 
ordinary. 

Viewed from above — first wheels up, then right 
way again, a loop, several cartwheels, a nose dive, 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 127 

more loops, and several turns on to and off its back, 
sideways, until it was lost to sight almost on the 
ground. Good enough ! 

By this time another F.E., a Bristol Scout, and 
two C.c.'s had arrived, but — fortunately for me — 
too late to claim a share in the finale. 

The next I remember doing was looking at my 
watch, 12.45. 

The incident over, we started climbing again, as 
those infernal photographs had to be done. At this 
point the engine began to have a say in the matter, 
and one cylinder decided to strike. So homeward 
we wended our weary way, though, I must confess, 
not without a frequent exchange of handshakes and 
chuckles. 

Quite an ovation on landing — the only person who 
wasn't cheery was the unfortunate observer of the 
Q.c. who entered into the commencement of the 
scrap. The satisfaction of knowing that the Johnny 
who'd pushed three holes into his right arm — con- 
siderately avoiding to touch the bone — had been 
properly strafed, didn't bear any weight. However, 
he'd had a rotten time in the air; it wasn't to be 
wondered at. 

This little beggar we had the luck to account for 
had, in company with two Aviatiks, given two other 



128 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Q.c.'s of ours a busy time when they were on pho- 
tography and reconnaissance duties, which rather 
mitigates the sorrow which one naturally feels for 
the poor beggars, whom the laws of war made our 
victims, though they might have been the best of 
fellows in themselves. 

The major was delighted, as it was the first 
machine of this type to show up in this quarter. A 
number of " Fokkers," as the German Moranes are 
called, have been giving our machines a lot of 
trouble down south, and it is rather thought that 
this one may have been a picked pilot sent up 
to put some more heart into the other machines 
working in this sector of the Front. 

For his first appearance he had certainly done 
remarkably well, driving off three of our machines 
and wounding an observer. For speed and climb, 
he left our machines absolutely standing, so he was 
well out of the way. 

I must say that he was the first German we have 
run across who put up anything like a real decent 
show, and our jubilation is tinged with regret at the 
loss of a very gallant fellow. So much for the 
episode itself. 

We got back satisfactorily to a late lunch, and 
soon after having entered up our report as to 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 129 

whether or not it was worth salving, were granted 
permission to go up to the wreckage. Meanwhile 
complications arose. An Anti-Aircraft ass who, 
as usual, knew about as much of his job as a cat 
does of cooking, had 'phoned up to the " V " Corps 
to say that a " Vickers " had brought down a Ger- 
man machine inside our lines. No. 5 Squadron, 
who share the aerodrome with us and have some 
" Vickers " machines, promptly came to the conclu- 
sion that to them was the credit, and sent in a claim 
to it to the Wing Headquarters. 

The Major's tactics were masterful. You remem- 
ber, I told you that at the close of the scrap another 
F.E., a Bristol Scout, two Q.c.'s, and sundry others 
arrived at the conclusion of the fracas up aloft? 
Well, he instructed each pilot to send in a report of 
what he saw. Five witnesses all round us and ample 
— not to say irrefutable — evidence that no " Vick- 
ers " had been within ten miles of the scene all day. 
Result : Verdict for my Squadron. 

P and I, with a flight-sergeant from my flight 

and a mechanic, set out about four by car. We 

turned off the road just after passing , and 

left the car down a side-road and waded through 
twelve inches of liquid mud for 300 yards to the 
Headquarters of an Artillery Brigade, where they 



130 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

insisted on us having tea. By this time it was dark, 
and a mist was in the making. Thence we were 
directed through more seas upon seas of mud to an 
Infantry Brigade Headquarters — our primary ob- 
jective. Here, after considerable delay, due to the 
fact that one brigade was moving in and another 
out, we got a very braw Scotsman for guide. After 
that the journey is beyond description; words fail 
me when trying to portray the journey four miles 
in the dark and a thickening mist. For a mile we 
kept our direction by holding one hand on a wire 
run along posts three feet high for that purpose, 
through woods, across fields, over trenches, jumping 
ditches when one could, and wading through when 
one couldn't. Never less than six inches mud, and 
sometimes so thick that it was impossible to shift a 
leg without pulling it out of the morass, by hand if 
you please! 

We thereupon struck a wooden track, known as 
the " ration railway," having wooden lines with 
trucks worked by hand. Imagine if you can the 
difficulties of keeping one's footing stepping from 
sleeper to sleeper when they were under four inches 
of mud and water at irregular intervals and only 
three inches wide, slippery as an eel into the bar- 
gain. When you missed one — which you did every 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 131 

third or fourth step (if you were lucky, or every 
other one if you weren't) — you were up to your 
knees or sometimes over them in the slime, without 
exaggerating one atom. A mile of line had been 
followed by this distinctly laborious method when it 
finally disappeared from sight altogether under a 
pond. 

A consultation which we proceeded to hold was 
disturbed by a mysterious creaking, much splashing, 
and a volume of oaths in an outlandish tongue, 
which I came to the conclusion was Gaelic. Behold, 
through the pond streamed a battalion of the Royal 
Scots coming out of the trenches for a rest. There 
being obviously nothing for it but to* take the 
plunge, we waded knee-deep in water, and followed 
the direction of the track, using the various bag- 
gage trucks on the line, with their attendant per- 
spiring Scotties, as milestones. 

The ground being strewn with shell-holes with 
the regularity of a honeycomb, I was lucky to get 
off with four immersions, some members of the 
party faring worse. Three miles were covered in 
this way, and we weren't sorry to find ourselves in 
a wood, covering the battalion headquarters that 
we had to interview. A chat and a drink of water, 
— and even that is precious up there, — and an officer 



132 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

volunteered to take us out to the scene of the crash. 

A walk of five hundred yards — more mud, more 
water — brought us up to a line of trenches and dug- 
outs about one hundred yards from the German 
trenches, though screened from those nearest us by 
a slight rise in between. That we were in unpleas- 
ant proximity was soon apparent, as the phew! 
phew! of the bullets came with most disturbing 
regularity. All the time, star-shell magnesium 
flares went up and made you stand still as a rock, 
as the least movement would give one away. But 
by now we had reached the wreckage. As far as 
I gathered, viewed from the ground, the fall was 
full of excitement, and our troops for four miles 
along the lines had stood up and cheered to a man 
for several minutes on end. 

In fact, a few had said to the officer in command 
of the battalion, so he told us, that they all felt it 
was worth four days' discomfort to see it come 
down 7000 feet, as the engine was going all the 
time, and he only took thirty-five seconds to drop 
the best part of two miles. You can imagine the 
pace it was going when it hit the ground ! Finishing 
its descent in a nose dive, as I said with its engine 
going, it first struck the top of a dug-out. It would 
seem that fellows watching its descent, and seeing 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 133 

its course to be headed towards them, had taken 
refuge in the dug-out. The roof was built of 
trunks of trees of reassuring dimensions, covered 
with three feet of earth. 

The impact was so great that, owing to the 
weight of the engine, it had gone slap through the 
roof and buried its nose into the bottom of the dug- 
out, leaving a portion of its tail outside, but the 
rest so telescoped as to occupy not more than a 
cubic yard. Remembering the fact that this type of 
machine has an all-steel frame, and that behind the 
pilot's seat there is nothing of weight, it helps to 
emphasize what a colossal speed he must have been 
travelling. The four occupants of the dug-out were 
all wounded as a result, but none seriously. One 
in particular lay there under the impression that he 
was in another world for some time! About a 
quarter of an hour after striking, the debris caught 
fire, possibly due to the shells which the Germans 
promptly proceeded to put over. It was then that 
the " would-be-corpse " decided that a little activity 
might be helpful, and as he had begun to smoulder, 
he was dropped into a convenient shell-hole full of 
water, which restored him to his status ante-crash, if 
one may coin an expression. The debris was still 
smouldering when we got there. Of what we saw 



i 3 4 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

in that dug-out ten feet by twelve feet, by the light 
of an electric torch through the smoke and smell, the 
time being midnight, and shells going off all around, 
I shall never forget as long as I live. 

Beyond repeating the official report I sent in, 
details would be too blood-curdling to put on 
paper. I don't think such a situation has been 
conceived in the most hair-raising novel ever 
written. 

Awful, isn't it? Shook my nerve up to a mince, 
but it may straighten out again soon. Personally, I 
couldn't stick it for more than a few minutes, and 
fled into the fresh air, though a particularly close 
" phew-phut ! " drove me into the trench again. A 
half -hour's wait, while the sergeant and mechanic 
made a more thorough examination and traced 
many peculiar items of interest. 

As mementoes of a very gruesome occasion, I 
have got two decoration ribbons the observer was 
wearing, though no medals were found; one of the 
ribbons is that of the Iron Cross. I have also the 
magneto from the engine, and a pistol for firing 
colored flares to range their anti-aircraft batteries 
on our machines, a portion of the fabric and plane 
(though the crosses from the wings had already been 
collared), and a few regimental buttons from the 



CLAUDE'S LETTERS 135 

pilot's tunic, which we shared out to the mechanic 
and sergeant with us. 

Starting home soon after twelve, the process of 
alternate wading, staggering, paddling, and wal- 
lowing was repeated with an increased intensity, 
owing to the mist having become a proper old fog. 
Besides getting lost several times, we did an un- 
necessary four miles, as we missed the proper turn- 
ing. As you may guess, we were mighty thankful 
to find our tender again, and infernally fagged too. 
But our adventures were not at end even then. 

Of course we are not allowed lights out there, 
and we ran slap into a horse and wagon, fortunately 
missing the former, who proceeded to bolt into the 
fog in the opposite direction. 

More than once one wheel of the car went into 
a shell-hole, and such a jolting as we got takes a 
long time to forget. 

You may be sure we weren't sorry to turn into 
the aerodrome at two o'clock this morning, as we 
hadn't had a bite for what must be easily the most 
eventful twelve hours of my life. 

Having sorted out and apportioned the relics, we 
turned in, and as for myself, slept like a top. 

Thanks so much for your letters and the maga- 
zines — I have read the article by the " Junior Sub." 



1 36 CLAUDE'S BOOK 

Just off to bye-bye. I'm afraid this is too late 
for to-night's post, but I thought it better to get it 
finished, as you may suppose I hadn't even time for 
a P.C. yesterday. 

Good-by, mother dear; thank you and Dad so 
much for your letters. Fondest love to all. — Your 
loving son, Claude 



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